Wife of husband who tried to kill her by tampering with parachute takes first skydive since horror plunge
Victoria Cilliers took a leap of faith to psychologically recover from her near-death experience in 2015
THE wife of an army sargeant who tried to kill her by tampering with her parachutes before a skydive has bravely taken her first jump since the horror plunge.
Victoria Cilliers, 42, was a victim of a cruel plot by her husband Emile Cilliers to have her fall to her death so he could run off with his secret mistress and his wife's life insurance money.
On Easter Sunday 2015, Victoria, a physiotherapist from Amesbury, fell 3,000ft to what was meant to be her death.
She managed to salvage enough of her two failed parachutes to reduce her speed enough to survive the fall.
Emile Cilliers was convicted of attempted murder in May and jailed for life.
Victoria says she had made a strong physical recovery, after suffering burst bones in her back and a fragment of her pelvis right by a main artery, but her psychological recovery was slower.
So last Sunday, at London Parachute School’s airfield in Oxfordshire, Victoria made the brave decision to take a leap of faith.
She flew to an altitude of two miles and jumped, landing safely with a fully-functioning parachute.
She told The Mail Online: "I smiled because people wanted me to, but the noise of the propellers turning, the smell of the fuel, the sensation of the cold wind rushing in through the door, it all made me deeply apprehensive.
"It took me right back to the last flight when I had a sixth sense that I should not be jumping, a premonition of something terrible about to happen with no notion of what it might be.
"When I landed I felt the most incredible sense of relief and release."
Her daughter, six, and son, three, were waiting there waving and shouting with pride.
Many members of the skydiving community were also there to show their support.
Victoria said: "I could feel the love and goodwill rising up to meet me."
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Donning the same trainers she wore back in 2015, Victoria said: "What are they if not my lucky parachuting shoes?"
Victoria has taken over 2,600 skydives, but this was possibly her bravest yet.
Visit Victoria's Just Giving page to donate to Wiltshire Air Ambulance Charitable Trust: .
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