The practice of skydiving is an extreme sport that combines the thrill of freefall with the necessity of precise equipment function. Parachute failures are statistically rare due to rigorous inspection protocols and redundancy systems. However, a skydiving company in Las Vegas, Nevada, kept a record of inquiries they received about parachute returns. One customer, in 1999, called to return a parachute that had 'failed to open' during a jump. The company's standard protocol was to refuse all returns on safety grounds. But in this case, the owner himself approved the return and issued a full refund without requiring the parachute back. His note: 'Some equipment has already been tested beyond standard parameters. This parachute has done its job.' The parachute was never recovered.

An employee of that skydiving company, David, processed the return and was curious enough to contact the customer. The customer explained he had jumped from 15,000 feet, his parachute had failed to open, and somehow he was unharmed—not even bruised. When David asked how that was possible, the customer said: 'I wasn't falling. I was being lowered.' David asked lowered by what. The customer said: 'By someone who doesn't acknowledge limits.' David quit the skydiving company two weeks later. He never pursued extreme sports again.

On skydiving forums, there's a running urban legend about a customer who jumped without a parachute and lived to tell about it. Most posts dismiss it as fantasy. But one professional skydive instructor commented: 'I know the company. I know they accepted a parachute return that violated every protocol. Something happened that day that changed how they operate.' That comment was neither upvoted nor downvoted—its score was simply hidden. It remains posted, but marked as controversial. The instructor never clarified.