Australia - This moment changed everything. Emma Carey miraculously survived a fall from a height of 4.5 kilometers. As she fell to the ground, only two things went through her mind.

The purest nightmare - but Emma survived.

The sporty Australian tells her story to LADbible and reveals how a failed skydive turned her life completely upside down.

In 2013, Emma went on a big trip around the world with her best friend Jenna, when she was 20 years old, she recalls. The two friends treated themselves to a tandem skydive, i.e. an accompanied jump with an experienced pilot. Jenna was very nervous, but Emma could hardly wait to jump out of the helicopter in the middle of the Swiss Alps and then gently float to the ground with the parachute.

At first, everything went as planned. Emma enjoyed the experience. But then came the moment when the tandem pilot tapped her on the shoulder to signal that he was going to open the parachute.

When Emma turned around, the shock: the tandem pilot was unconscious and had become entangled in the parachute cords. Worse still, the parachute did not open properly. Panic overcame the young woman and she plummeted to the ground unchecked.

As she fell, she could only think of two things. First: she didn't want to die, Emma desperately wanted to live. Secondly, the sad certainty that her best friend would find her body if she actually died. Then came the impact.

Emma hit the ground hard, broke her sternum, pelvis and several vertebrae and crushed her spinal cord. The shock diagnosis was paraplegia.

While Jenna had the difficult task of informing Emma's family in Australia about the accident , the survivor underwent emergency surgery. What followed was a long stay in hospital in Switzerland. Emma struggled to fight her way back to life. Her mother, sister and Jenna were by her side.

The parachute instructor also survived and was admitted to the same hospital. Although Emma was initially very angry with him and everything pointed to pilot error, she decided to forgive the man. While still in hospital, they both spoke to each other.

Today, more than eleven years later, Emma is fully recovered and can finally walk again after a long period of physiotherapy. The young woman looks to the future with confidence, travels the world, does a lot of sport and has written a book about the moment that changed her life forever.