A plane lands at Headcorn Aerodrome. File picture.

by Chris Hunter

Those of us who have ever dodged a rogue wild boar or deer on a country lane know to expect the unexpected when navigating rural Kent.

But the unexpected borders on the unbelievable when you’re forced to swerve past a man falling from the heavens.

Biddenden woman Nicola Hollamby, 45, was driving home along Biddenden Road after a doctor’s appointment in Headcorn, when she suddenly became aware of an incoming airbourne object in the eastern sky - a parachutist in trouble.

“He was about 500ft in front of me, coming from the left,” said Mrs Hollamby, a foster carer. “I thought ‘Oh my God, he’s going to land in the road’.

“I couldn’t stop because there were cars behind me but luckily there was nothing coming the other way so I could swerve to miss him.

“He went past the car and landed in the grass verge - he did well not to land in the road.”

She believes the parachutist could have been killed if there had been traffic coming in the other direction or a lorry had been on the road.

As it was, although she couldn’t stop she managed to glimpse the man gathering his equipment safely on the verge in her rear-view mirror.

“He must have been totally shocked,” she added. “His heart must have been racing.”

But who was the lucky escapee?

Headcorn Aerodrome say there had been no reports of anyone landing in a road at that time - although one parachutist had reportedly come down in a field away from his intended landing area.

Cameraman and parachutist Edward Wilkin says he flew over the road at about 200m but not low enough to cause a problem.

“No cars had to swerve around me or anything like that,” he said. “I landed in the field.

“You get a lot of planes coming in low around the airfield - if someone’s not used to it they probably think ‘oh my God, what’s going on?’”

Mrs Hollamby didn’t get a close enough look at the man to offer any description - other than to say his parachute was green.

The exact identity of the rogue parachutist remains unconfirmed.

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