ROWAN COUNTY — Plan B was in place and plan C was in a helicopter on its way, but plan A worked out just fine for emergency services in rescuing a parachuter who had gotten stuck 80 feet above the ground in a tree. The man was rescued without injury.

According to Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell, the man had likely gotten blown off course while sky diving around the airport. He eventually ended up stuck in the woods off of Henderson Grove Church Road near Interstate 85.

The rescue plan was complicated by the tree he was stuck in, which was thin enough that it was swaying around 10 feet to the side, said Parnell. Plan No. 1 was for the team to send someone up a nearby tree, close enough to give the parachuter instructions on how to hook himself into the rescue ropes and help lower himself down. This plan worked, as the man successfully got himself hooked up and freed from the parachute.

Plan No. 2 would have been for two rescuers to position on either side of the parachuter and get him hooked in and then lowered down. Both men had positioned themselves nearby in the tree when the man was freed from the parachute. Plan No. 3 was for a state helicopter rescue team, known as HART, to position themselves above the parachuter and rescue him from above. Rescuers from the HART team are located around the state, so that plan took some time to mobilize. The helicopter was en route by the time the man hit the ground.

When the parachuter reached the ground, EMS workers slowly released him from his harness in order to gradually add weight to his legs. Since the man had been trapped in the harness for almost two hours, his legs had gone numb from being pinched by the harness. Outside of the numbness, Parnell said that he had no apparent injuries at the scene.

The rescuers who worked to free the man came from Salisbury Fire Department, Kannapolis Fire Department and Rowan Rescue Squad.