Woman, 21, dies after being thrown from Brazil rope jump bridge without harness

A 21-year-old woman who died when two rope jumping instructors threw her from a bridge without first harnessing her to security equipment, has been buried in Brazil’s São Paulo state.

Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was rope jumping on Saturday at Ponte do Esqueleto, an abandoned bridge in the municipality of Limeira where tourists practice extreme sports. The young woman, who aspired to become a physical education teacher, had asked to be launched from the bridge airplane style, with two instructors hoisting her above their shoulders as she spread out her arms.

On Monday, police investigator Andrea Levy told journalists that the three jumping instructors involved in the incident acknowledged that de Freitas was not connected to safety ropes when she jumped Saturday in the countryside of Sao Paulo state.

Levy said the three instructors have been arrested and could face manslaughter charges.

“They do not remember whether they forgot to attach (the ropes), or who was supposed to do it, or who failed to check. But the fact is the ropes were not attached to her,” Levy said.

Footage shared online shows two men in white helmets launching Freites into a 40-metre (130ft) abyss without attaching her to any security equipment as an onlooker screams at the instructors to attach her to a cord. The instructors are wearing harnesses that appear to be attached to a security rope.

Rope jumping is an extreme sport that differs from bungee jumping in the type of cord used and the resulting motion of the fall. Bungee jumping uses elastic rubber cords that create a vertical, bouncing effect, whereas rope jumping uses low-stretch climbing ropes that convert the fall into a horizontal, pendulum swing.