OUCH!! Freefall from 5000 feet.

the best thing is that he only broke a rib and he's a hot aussie

5000 feet? pfffft...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee
they even filmed it !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lJTZUOKLfw (kinda special *ahem*)

even girls can do it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovic

Good grief, this has sure made the rounds. The guy is certainly lucky that he landed in something soft. But the media apparently haven't given a moment's thought to the meaning of the term "freefall." Freefall is what you're doing *before* deploying the parachute. That would be about 120mph, and no berry patch would save you.

He had a spinning malfunction with two canopies out, a serious but not-unheard-of situation. What would really be interesting to know is why his main canopy didn't release.

Indeed not freefall, and it's obvious from the video that he's slowed down sufficiently enough for other skydivers with fully open parachutes to actually catch up to him somewhat.

Saw a story about a guy a few years ago though who jumped and the parachute didn't open at all, nor did the reserve. He survivied by miraculously landing on a big metal grate that somewhat cushioned his fall (though he bounced a couple of times). He broke virtually every bone breakable and had massive internal damage, but survived.

Seeing it that he did the bushes probably did save his life absorbing most of the impact to keep him alive.

With water he would have hit it like hitting a wall due to the surface tension.

Lucky guy. Not as bad as the one video I saw of that fellow who base jumped off a power dam and fell all the way...jeez it was so painful afterwards...so much blood and screaming. Luckily he survived but with alot of broken bones to prove that it wasn't a good idea.