In 2012, Australian traveler Erin Langworthy bungee jumped off a bridge over Zambia’s Zambezi River—a site known for its strong currents and crocodiles—when disaster struck. Her bungee cord snapped mid-air, sending her plummeting 360 feet into the river below.
Footage captured the moment Langworthy hit the water. “I started coughing up blood and began to worry about internal injuries,” she later told The Guardian. Despite her feet being tied and the cord snagging on rocks, she managed to swim to safety. A staff member pulled her from the river and rushed her to a hospital in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
She arrived hours later, placed on a ventilator, and treated for water contamination and lung injuries. Miraculously, X-rays showed no broken bones.
The bungee company later apologized and expressed amazement at her survival. Langworthy shared a chilling coincidence—a postcard she’d sent to her mother joking: “I’m doing a bungee jump tomorrow, so I’ll say goodbye… only joking!” It’s now a family keepsake, though her mother swears she’ll never let her daughter bungee jump again.
