In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, a parasailer’s cord snapped when a storm started moving in and she couldn’t be brought back to the boat safely. A video shows the moment her cord broke, and subsequent videos reveal what happened to her next.
A Video Shows the Moment the Cord Snapped
Videos are circulating on social media showing the moment the cord snapped. The person who shared the original video, whose name is not known at the time of this article’s publication, narrated what was happening, with obvious concern for the parasailer. You can watch one of the videos, shared by CPS News Puerto Vallarta on YouTube, below. The video can also be watched on Reddit here if it’s taken down on YouTube for any reason.
The narrator said at the beginning that a storm was coming in with rain and lightning and “the parasailer’s stuck; it’s so windy they can’t reel him in.” (Subsequent stories revealed the parasailer was a woman.)
“He’s gotta be scared as sh**,” the narrator said, then zooming in to the boats below. “See everybody panicking, trying to help?”
He caught the exact moment the cord broke and the parasailer began floating away.
Subsequent Videos Show the Parasailer Landing & Being Rescued
🔴#AHORA Una turista estuvo en grave peligro al romperse la cuerda de la lancha que jalaba un parachute y cayó sobre unos cables de media tensión en la Col. Versalles de Puerto Vallarta, fue auxiliada por testigos y se reporta en estado regular.
Vía: @EvaristoTenorio
In a Google translated article by AM.com from Mexico, the woman was in Bahia Banderas of Puerto Vallarta when her parasailing cord broke. She flew across the beach, past several blocks, and ended up crashing into electricity lines belonging to the Federal Electricity Commission, Puerto Vallarta News TV reported. She was 21.
The woman only suffered minor injuries, AM.com reported. You can see the two videos showing what happened to her in the tweet above or here.
Another video shows her parasail caught as people rush to help rescue her.
Vallarta Daily reported that the woman, Maria Monserrat Munoz Cueyo, is from Guanajuato and was hanging from the cables until a witness helped get her down, took her home, and called for an ambulance. She was treated in a private clinic.
A first responder said told Vallarta Daily: “The cable was semi-insulated, if not, the person would not have survived.”
When the incident happened, a thread was started in the Puerto Vallarta subreddit from someone who witnessed the incident. Redditor mattman840 wrote: “Did anyone see the person parasailing thru the hotel zone after her line snapped as the storm rolled in this afternoon? Looks like they crossed the shoreline around 230-3pm just south of secrets vallarta. I caught a quick glimpse as the staff came running over to see, but no idea what happened after they went behind the building.”
The Redditor continued, noting that the weather had been pretty bad that day leading up to the storm.
They wrote: “We could see the storm building for at least an hour beforehand, even yelling to take them down. Then all the hotel staff started yelling and pointing and we saw the person go floating by at a pretty good pace. Crazy stuff…”
They added in another comment: “No idea where the rope snapped, but those winds definitely did play a huge part in this.”
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