A MAN watched as his wife was crushed after she fell 100 feet – and now the jumping instructor is in prison.
‘Free-flying’ extreme sports jumping instructor Alexander Muznikas, 33, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
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“My wife was crushed before my eyes,” said Alexander Tkachenko.
Yevgenia Leontyeva, 33, was reluctant to make the jump from a hotel roof, even though she had done so before.
The mother of three let her friend lead the way, and this “free-flying” jump was successful, a court in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, was told.
Witnesses said Yevgenia seemed “afraid,” but they heard instructor Alexander Muznikas, 33, urging her to jump.
He said to her, “It’s not the first time you’ve jumped.
“You know how to do it. Did I put a safety harness on you for nothing?”
She can then be seen in a harrowing video jumping off the roof moments after husband Alexander Tkachenko told her, “I love you.”
She hit the ground and rammed into an iron fence after a support rope was not properly secured to a tree, according to reports.
There were screams from onlookers on the roof and onlookers below were seen coming to her rescue after the horrific fall.
A transverse line to which her rope was attached—and which was to break her fall and leave her hanging above the ground—wouldn’t hold, or was not even tied.
A man falls to the ground as she crashes, reports say.
It is believed he was holding the safety line that should have been attached to the tree and he was knocked out by the force of her fall pulling on the unattached rope.
The grieving husband said, “I came to support my wife.
“Well, how not to support your loved one…
“My wife was crushed before my very eyes. I was in shock and panic.
“It was clearly the employee’s fault.
“They have not coordinated their actions. The instructor did not look down to make sure the rope was tied. He simply said to her, “Jump!”
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. He is guilty. He has to serve time in prison…
“Of course this will not return my husband and mother of my children…”
He said: “After her fall, I knelt beside her. He [the instructor] came, but I don’t remember what happened then. She was still breathing.”
He is raising three children, ages eight, eleven and twelve.
Before the tragic jump, Yevgenia and her friend had posted “Live it up” and “We’re going to fly”.
She suffered a severe skull fracture and brain injury, as well as multiple right-sided fractures.
She was rushed to hospital but died when surgeons tried to save her.
‘SCARED TO JUMP’
Friend Anton Shevelev told the court he had demanded that the instructor take off the harness because Yevgenia was “afraid to jump” and that they “go home”.
But Muznikas persuaded her to make the jump, he said.
The woman had three boys under 14, two of her own, and the son of a deceased relative.
Muznikas was convicted of providing services that did not comply with security rules and of causing death by negligence.
The female judge admitted he had rushed the woman to hospital after her horrific fall.
He was sentenced to four years in a medium security prison.
His conviction was shown on Kazakh TV.
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