Parachutist Injured In Jump Off Space Needle

A parachutist who landed hard after jumping from the Space Needle on Thursday was in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center with a broken bone in her lower back.

Jessica Ann Kluetmeier, 29, of New York City, was not paralyzed, hospital spokesman Larry Zalin said. Doctors were analyzing her injury, he said.

Kluetmeier and three men each jumped twice from the Space Needle Thursday morning. The mishap occurred on her second jump, when the steering line wrapped over the top of her parachute, causing her to spin and land hard on some grass.

One of the other jumpers, Steve Mulholland of Seattle, “indicated that Kluetmeier was in good spirits, smiled and gave a thumbs up” as she was taken to the hospital, a news release from the Space Needle Corp. said.

Kluetmeier has 1,200 parachute jumps from aircraft and, before Thursday, 50 from fixed objects, including 31 from heights under 750 feet. The Space Needle’s observation deck, from which she jumped Thursday, is 520 feet high.

Thursday’s jumps were the first ever authorized from the 1962 world’s fair landmark. The only other parachute jumps occurred in 1975, when two young adventurers concealed their parachutes in knapsacks, got past safety barriers and jumped.

MEMO: Changed from Idaho edition.