A 45-year-old Russian woman died in front of her son after falling from nearly 300 feet while attempting to take a selfie following a bungee jump, local authorities confirmed.
Elizaveta Gushchina, a mother of two and an experienced extreme sports enthusiast, had successfully completed a bungee jump on Saturday from a 289-foot-high chimney at an unfinished thermal power plant in Pavlovsk, near St. Petersburg. The jump was a birthday gift from her 22-year-old son, Nikita, who also belongs to the same bungee jumping club.
Shortly after the jump, Gushchina climbed back up the chimney platform without wearing a safety harness to take a celebratory photo with her son. According to investigators, she was secured to a rope used for rope jumping but had not adjusted it to a safe length. She reportedly slipped on a wet board and fell, fatally striking a hard surface before reaching the ground.
Dramatic video footage posted online shows Gushchina’s successful jump moments before the fatal accident. Her extreme sports club released a statement on Sunday expressing deep sorrow over her death, calling it “a very big tragedy.”
Authorities have launched an investigation into whether the bungee facility met all legal safety requirements.