Last week on The Bachelor, fans watched as Matt James went on a unique date with each of the remaining ladies prior to meeting their families. Front runner Rachael Kirkconnell had an adventurous day planned as she blinded folded Matt before surprising him with a skydiving date. While they had the time of their lives jumping from the plane, things quickly took a turn when Rachael and her instructor had a bad landing. Now, it is being said that the instructor actually broke his ankle in the incident.
Just moments after Matt was seen having a safe landing, Rachael was shown face planting into the ground. Matt quickly went running to Rachael who was moaning in pain on the ground. Rachael had grass and dirt both in her mouth and hair. The scene quickly switched to Matt and a cleaned-up Rachael sitting on the grass talking. The episode did not go into any detail about how serious the mishap was; however, Rachael did later reveal to her mom that she had a lot of makeup on to cover the bruises on her face. Some fans are speculating that producers had planned this incident.
Rachael was not the only one to get hurt in the horrid landing. According to a Redditor, the instructor broke his ankle in the incident. The user claims to know him personally. This is said to be the reason why production did not include much of the incident in the episode. The instructor, whose name is said to be Andrew, ended up having to step away from skydiving for the rest of the season. He had to wear a boot on his foot and be on crutches for quite some time following the injury. When watching the video of their landing back in slow motion, Andrew's leg can be seen bending backward as he tries to grasp the ground for a safer landing.
Although he looks too young to be a skydiving instructor, Andrew is said to be around 20 years old. His mom is supposedly a USPA (United States Parachute Association) board member. While most skydiving landings typically take place in a drop zone, it seems as though that was not the case for Matt and Rachael's date. Their skydiving date was said to take place at Nemacolin Airport and the instructors were a part of Aerohio Skydiving Center. Located in Ashland, Ohio, the skydiving center was around three hours away from the resort this season took place at.
Rachael really did fall hard for Matt this season. Despite allegedly having some bruising on her face, and most likely some soreness, Rachael made it out of the skydiving mishap relatively well. Her instructor, on the other hand, was not as lucky. Although the situation was quite scary, Bachelor fans were quick to poke fun at the incident with some hilarious memes and jokes.
Source: Reddit, Bachelor Nation