Perthshire woman's charity sky-dive grounded due to faulty plane

Nov 17 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

A FAULTY plane grounded a Perth woman’s charity sky-dive at the weekend, writes Les Stewart.

Thirty-one-year-old Louisa Jacobs had “psyched herself up” for the parachute jump from the Skyline Events base at Errol on Sunday.

But the business development manager with Horsecross in Perth received a call from them on Friday – November 13 – to say that her tandem jump would have to be put on hold.

“I actually phoned the company back to make sure that this wasn’t some joker having a laugh but, yep, it’s true,” she explained yesterday.

“I’m gutted. I had proper psyched myself up for it. But looking on the bright side, I have no desire to get in a faulty plane, with or without a parachute.”

Lisa is raising money for Quarriers, a Scottish charity which supports and cares for thousands of children and families who have physical, mental or emotional difficulties.

Despite having a fear of heights, the jump will involve Lisa launching herself out of a plane at 10,000 ft. above the Carse of Gowrie countryside.

She will then freefall at 120mph before pulling the ripcord of the parachute and floating gently down to earth.

With a new date still to be arranged, she has now e-mailed all those who have generously agreed to sponsor her to explain the situation.

“But don’t worry,” she stressed yesterday. “It will still go ahead – just at a later date. They can’t confirm when this will be so I will just have to keep you posted.

“In the meantime, I will keep hold of all the money I have collected to date and my justgiving page will remain open.

“For those who have pledged cash but haven’t been able to hand it over yet, I will collect it after the jump does take place as planned.”

Those who would still like to sponsor her can do so on-line at: http://www.justgiving.com/Lou-is-jumping-for-joy They can also e-mail lou_ecosse@live.co.uk