Skydiving Student Jumped Into Free Fall. Moments Later, She Was &x27;Spinning Out of Control&x27; (Exclusive) Zoey LyttleWed, March 4, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC 0 Hana Terrell.Credit: Courtesy of Hana Terrell (2) Hana Terrell started skydiving in 2022, and she hasn't experienced many scary moments in free fall — save for one incident early on in her jumping career During her training, on just her 11th dive, her equipment malfunctioned, leaving her to rely on the "emergency procedures" she was taught and a second parachute After the shaky jump, Terrell says she immediately got back up to do another ...
Skydiving Student Jumped Into Free Fall. Moments Later, She Was 'Spinning Out of Control' (Exclusive)
Zoey LyttleWed, March 4, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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Hana Terrell.Credit: Courtesy of Hana Terrell (2) -
Hana Terrell started skydiving in 2022, and she hasn't experienced many scary moments in free fall — save for one incident early on in her jumping career
During her training, on just her 11th dive, her equipment malfunctioned, leaving her to rely on the "emergency procedures" she was taught and a second parachute
After the shaky jump, Terrell says she immediately got back up to do another leap to prevent herself from overthinking the incident and getting scared of the sport
Since her first skydive in 2022, Hana Terrell has done a total of 450 jumps — out of planes, off of hot air balloons and over some of the most idyllic places in the world.
However, the L.A.-based diver, 28, tells PEOPLE that in the world of skydiving, she's not considered to be at the master level yet. Terrell certainly seems like a pro daredevil in the high-flying videos she shares for her 55,600 Instagram followers, but she maintains that she's really quite a novice.
"In comparison to a lot of people in the sport, I'm really not a good skydiver," she explains. Of course, her humility reflects how much time she's actually had in the sky. It's been only four years since Terrell did her first tandem jump in Hawaii.
Hana Terrell.Credit: Courtesy of Hana Terrell
The SoulCycle instructor admits that she always felt like she would "be too scared" to leap out of a plane, but something shifted in free fall when she decided to give it a shot while on vacation. From that first jump onwards, Terrell says she became "obsessed."
As soon as she got back home to Los Angeles, she started researching ways to make skydiving a bigger part of her life. Terrell says she didn't waste any time working towards obtaining her skydiving license. After one course and 25 total fives, she was awarded her license.
"After that, it's just the training of getting confident and learning how to fly your body," she explains. "You just trust yourself that you know what you're doing and that you can handle a high-pressure situation."
She discovered her ability to act under intense circumstances quite early in her skydiving career. Terrell experienced a malfunction with her equipment on only her 11th jump, when she was still just a student.
After jumping into free fall, Terrell quickly realized something wasn't working, though she says she was so new to the sport that she didn't understand exactly what had gone wrong while in the air.
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Hana Terrell and a fellow skydiver.Credit: Courtesy of Hana Terrell
"I just knew that I was spinning out of control and I had to cut away, but everything worked," she recalls, nodding to the crisis strategy her instructors drilled into each of the trainees. They were told to cut away their parachutes as soon as they realized something was wrong. After the faulty equipment is removed, a backup one should work in its place.
"My second parachute opened just fine, and I landed," Terrell recalls. "I was so new that I didn't even have time to process because people were running over to me being like, 'Are you OK?' Because they saw that I had my reserve parachute."
Hana Terrell.Credit: Courtesy of Hana Terrell
As "crazy" as it is to look back on, she's grateful it happened during training. "They really drill into you your emergency procedures and what you're supposed to do when you cut away," she reflects.
Once she made it to the ground, there was no time to be scared. Following her instructor's advice, Terrell went back up to do another jump immediately.
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"That's how you move on from it because if you go home and you think about it, then maybe you get scared," she explains. "I went up on the next plane, and everything was fine. I was thinking, 'What are the odds that happens twice in one day?' Pretty low."
Other than that, it's been pretty much smooth sailing for Terrell. "I've had some sketchy openings, but nothing bad," she says. "Everything's been good."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: March 4, 2026 at 12:45PM on Source: RED MAG
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