Zambezi Bungee Update: Zambia’s tourism minister jumped, too
Erin Langworthy makes a splash as she plummets into the Zambezi River after her bungee cord breaks during her jump in Victoria Falls. Image grabbed from video footage taken at the scene.
On New Year's Eve, Australian tourist Erin Langworthy fell nearly 400 feet into the Zambezi River after her bungee cord snapped.
Her story, and the viral video that accompanied it, became the talk of the internet after she miraculously survived, with only a broken collarbone for her trouble.
More from GlobalPost: VIDEO: Bungee jump accident drops woman into crocodile-infested waters
Sensing that his country could use an image boost, Zambia's tourism minister Given Lubinda jumped off the bridge himself on Sunday, and then offered to accompany Langworthy on her next jump, BBC reported. Lubinda said:
I am hoping that all those who watched a middle-aged person jumping down the bridge and coming back up smiling will be encouraged not just to jump but also to come and visit Zambia.
Lubinda has become known in his country as a thrill-seeker, as the Zambia Daily Mail wrote. "In October, he took revellers by storm when he walked a tight rope with his colleague and friend Miles Sampa — Southern Province Minister — and played the guitar at a packed Oliver Mtukudzi function while just last week, he was pictured ‘charming’ a wild cat."
His own daredevil nature aside, Lubinda is entirely confident in the safety of bungee jumping over the Zambezi, writes the Times of Zambia. "I came here to prove that the bungee jumping activities are safe," he said. "That accident was a small one in 50,000 jumps in a year."