She falls 1km and survives

She was desperate to go skydiving. So her father, Mr Joe Wethington, arranged a trip for her as a present for her 16th birthday.

It was Makenzie's (left) first solo jump and it was almost her last when she fell 3,500 feet (about 1km) after fighting a losing battle with her parachute, the New York Daily News reported.

She miraculously survived the fall, but suffered a broken vertebrae and pelvis, and other injuries in the horrific accident in Oklahoma, US, last week.

"The whole thing that's keeping us going is she's still alive and really she shouldn't be," her sister Meagan told NBC.

She said that someone on the plane pulled the cord for her sister, but the parachute "went up but it didn't go out".

Mr Wethington told a press conference that he had thought it would be a tandem jump, with both of them jumping together. He claimed he was surprised that it was not.

He told Today: "It was not a part of the programme there, but Mackenzie was already so excited."

He jumped first and landed safely. But he could only watch in horror as she spiralled out of control as her primary parachute failed to open.

She hit the ground hard.

Said the father: "She's a miracle child. She jumped out of a plane, but fell in God's hands."

The teenager is now recuperating.

Said Miss Meagan: "And now she's breathing on her own. It's spectacular."

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