Father tells of moment he watched skydiver daughter, 16, plunge 3,500ft as doctors say they have 'no idea' how she survived

'The whole way over there, from the time that I knew (the skydiver was) going to hit the ground... it was "please God, don't be Makenzie," ...And it was,' Joe Wethington, from Joshua, Texas, said Tuesday of his daughter

Miraculously, Makenzie survived the horror fall, baffling doctors at the OU Medical Center where she has now been moved out of intensive care

The family are now accusing Pegasus Air Sports in Chickasha, as Oklahoma for failing to adequately train Makenzie for a solo jump

She was injured after she had a complication with her parachute during a jump Saturday and was unable to open a backup chute

An emotional father has described the unimaginable moment he watched his 16-year-old daughter plunge 3,500ft to the ground after a skydiving accident Saturday.

'I didn't know until I got to her and saw the body on the ground (that) it was her,' Joe Wethington said of his daughter, Makenzie, in a Tuesday press conference.



'The whole way over there, from the time that I knew (the skydiver was) going to hit the ground... it was "please God, don't be Makenzie, please please please God, don't be Makenzie." And it was.'

Miraculously, the Joshua, Texas, teen survived the horror fall, baffling doctors at the OU Medical Center where she has now been moved out of intensive care.

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Incredible: Miraculously, the Joshua, Texas, teen, pictured, survived the horror fall, baffling doctors at the Oklahoma University Medical Center where she was first treated before being transferred to her home state of Texas

Emotional: Joe Wethington, pictured, has described the moment he watched his 16-year-old daughter plunge 3,500ft to the ground after a skydiving accident Saturday

She suffered a major fracture in her liver, broke her pelvis, shoulder blade, several ribs, a lumbar vertebra in her lower spine and a tooth but is now in good condition, is talking and has feeling back in her extremities.

'I wasn't there, but if she truly fell 3,500ft I have no idea how she survived,' Jeffrey Bender, the OU Medical Center trauma surgeon who treated Makenzie, said in the news conference.

'When I saw her in the emergency department, I would have predicted she was not going to survive all of this. But I'm always happy to be wrong about these things.'

Within 12 hours of arriving at OU medical, Makenzie's internal bleeding had stabilized and she began regaining consciousness, Bender said. She is expected to be fully recovered after six to eight weeks of rehabilitation.

Makenzie's parents have slammed the skydiving company, Pegasus Air Sports, for failing to properly train their daughter ahead of the jump, and claim they offered her only a solo jump rather than tandem with an instructor.

'She wasn't prepared,' Joe Wethington said. 'We weren't walked through the steps for the malfunction that did take place, at all.'

Miracle: Doctors in Oklahoma are baffled at how 16-year-old Makenzie Wethington, pictured, survived plunging 3,500ft to the ground after her parachute didn't open properly Saturday

Alive: Makenzie Wethington, 16, fell approximately 3,500 feet to the ground when her parachute apparently malfunctioned

Confusion: Joe Wethington, pictured here with his daughter, expected Makenzie to jump tandem with an instructor but he said the company made her go solo

He added in the news conference: 'I don't think she should have been allowed to go up there and I find it very hard to believe the rules and regulations in Oklahoma are that lax. I think it is the company...'

Wethington drove to Pegasus Air Sports in Chickasaw, Oklahoma for the jump after Makenzie said it was her dream to go skydiving on her 16th birthday.

In Texas, the legal age to sky-dive is 18 but Oklahoma allows 16-year-olds to jump with parental permission.

Wethington, who was also in the airplane, successfully jumped before watching from the ground as his daughter tumbled through the air and landed with a thud.

'She was screaming real bad and acting like she had the wind knocked out of her, wheezing,' the emotional father recalled.



'Then she started screaming, "Get off me, get off me," and nobody was on her. Then she told me to rub her back and she'd start screaming real loud.'

Emergency crews arrived in 15 minutes and began administering aid.

Shocked: 'I wasn't there, but if she truly fell 3,500ft I have no idea how she survived,' Jeffrey Bender, the OU Medical Center trauma surgeon who treated Makenzie, said in a news conference Tuesday

Pegasus owner Bob Swainson said Makenzie and her father went through about six hours of training before they jumped, which is standard for new jumpers at Pegasus.



But Wethington said it was closer to two or three hours.

According to its website, the registered company requires four hours of training for first-time static line jumpers.

During training, Swainson said jumpers are taught how to respond in emergency situations and deploy backup chutes.

As Makenzie was falling, a radio operator on the ground instructed her to deploy her backup chute, but she didn't do it.

Her parents, who are considering a lawsuit, said she wasn't trained properly to respond to the emergency situation mid-air and she wasn't strong enough to deploy the second parachute.

They also suspect her equipment may have been faulty.

According to Swainson, who was in the plane with the father and daughter, Makenzie's chute opened fully but took a left turn after opening and spiraled to the ground.

Not so sweet: Makenzie was with her dad Joe, who took her to Oklahoma to skydive for her 16th birthday

Excited: In most places and in Texas where the Wethingtons live, you must be 18-years-old to skydive. To get around the rule, the father and daughter drove to Oklahoma, where 16-year-old Makenzie could jump with her father's consent



'All I'm going to say is it had a bit of a turn, and it wasn't corrected, the 46-year skydiving veteran said. 'It probably could have been corrected.'

Meanwhile, her father described his daughter as the 'toughest kid I ever met.'

'She never shed one tear,' he told reporters.

Makenzie's mother, Holly Wethington, said she was talked into signing the permission slip because she thought her daughter would be jumping tandem.

'They talked me into it because of course they said it was safe, she'd be on somebody's back, it wasn't going to be her responsiblity to do anything, so I did give her permission because she was very excited,' she recalled through tears.



'God's hand caught her,' Makenzie's older sister Meagan told KDFW earlier this week.



Things looked grim after the jump but the teen exuded joy and excitement beforehand.



Makenzie and her father were there to fulfill her dream to go skydiving.



'You can be 16 with a parent consent. My dad is jumping with me,' Makenzie tweeted leading up to her perilous fall.

'She's still alive and really she shouldn't be': Makenzie's sister Meagan (right with Makenzie at left) says her sister's survival is nothing short of a miracle

It was one of many ecstatic dispatches she'd send out Friday.



Makenzie's dad jumped first and Makenzie followed thereafter. Another man decided he didn't want to do it and the instructor stayed behind.

Joe Wethington landed safely on the ground and watched helplessly as his daughter spiraled down, her parachute apparently jammed.

'My dad said that the guy on the ground was talking to [my sister] through the radio,' Meagan told NBCDFW.com. 'They had a radio in their ears. And my dad just heard him keep saying, "Reach up. Pull the chute out. Reach up. Pull the chute out. You need to calm down, calm down."'

Oklahoma Bound!

— Makenzie Wethington (@WethingMakenzie) January 25, 2014

@Shelby_doran Thanks girl! I'll tell you when I'm in the ground again!

— Makenzie Wethington (@WethingMakenzie) January 25, 2014





The family believes Makenzie must have panicked and it kept her from fixing her chute or engaging the backup. She was rushed to an Oklahoma City hospital.



'Her vertebrae broke in half,' Meagan said. 'Her pelvic bone completely split in half. She has more broken bones in her back. She has two broken ribs…her teeth.'

Survivor: According to Meagan, Makenzie has several broken vertebrae, a shattered pelvis, smashed teeth and serious internal bleeding. She was on a breathing machine, but miraculously she was breathing on her own after two days

Makenzie also had serious internal injuries including bleeding in her brain, lungs and liver according to a Facebook account the family set up to keep loved ones updated on Makenzie's well-being.



She was on a breathing machine at first. But miraculously, after two days, she improved enough to start breathing on her own.

Meagan says her sister is able to wiggle her toes and can even speak a little.

'She honestly keeps saying is, she just thinks it was her fault, because she couldn't reach up and pull the shoot,' said Meagan.



Who's fault it is remained unclear Monday.



Makenzie jumped with her father's consent, but more often than not a jumper's first skydive is done tandem--that is, while strapped to the back of a more seasoned jumper.



This is what her father expected to happen, however, Pegasus Air Sports Center only offered solo jumps.

But Makenzie is now focused on her recovery.

