A BASE jumper who escaped death by mere inches after a parachute malfunction says he will return to the sport within a matter of months.

Horrified friends of Chad Smith, from Maidstone, watched on as he leapt off a Dover cliff and hurtled 180ft towards a rock bed after throwing his parachute in the wrong direction.

A huge emergency response was scrambled to the coast on Friday, December 28, to treat the 27-year-old who miraculously only suffered injuries to his vertebrae and pelvis.

He was airlifted by coastguard helicopter to the top of the cliff at St Margaret’s Bay, before being transferred to an air ambulance and flown to Kings College Hospital in London.

BASE jumping, which stands for building, antenna, span, and earth, is the act of throwing yourself off fixed objects and is thought to be among the most dangerous forms of sport.

Mr Smith is now recovering well, and while fully aware of how close he came to losing his life, insists it has not put him off making a return.

He told KentOnline: "That particular cliff had never actually been jumped by anybody before - and you have to do certain things to make sure it was safe.

"So I dropped a rock off the cliff and used a laser range finder, which is like a little telescope, to test how high it was.

"One-hundred-and-eighty metres is quite a low jump but it can be done and done safely."

However, Mr Smith, who lives in Tovil, threw open his pilot chute downwards, rather than upwards, meaning the parachute did not open as quickly as it should have done.

"I knew straight away what I had done and had the next two-and-a-half seconds to think about it," he said.

"There was nothing I could do, the ground was coming towards me and I really thought I was going to die - if it had opened a millisecond later, I'd have been dead.

"People say in experiences like this that time slows down and I don't think it's a cliche at all - I remember being told time is elastic, and it's completely true.

"When you do a jump, it all slows down - even when it's going right, two-and-a-half seconds can seem quite long because you are hyper-aware at that point.

"I don't remember thinking a huge amount at the time, it's not like my life flashed before my eyes or anything."

Now, more than two weeks on, Mr Smith is still unable to do as much independently as he'd like, but is on course to make a full recovery within three months.

And while he's promised his partner, Raminta Petuchovaite, he will take extra precautions in future, he hasn't kicked the adrenaline bug for good, pledging also to compete in the World Cup of Canopy Piloting in South Africa - a popular skydiving competition.

"I've definitely learned some lessons and it was awful for her, I wouldn't want to put her through that again," he said.

"I'm also extremely grateful to everyone else who's helped me over the last few days - South East Coast Ambulance Service and their HART team, the air ambulance, fire service and police and everyone in the control room, and the staff on the Edith Cavill ward in Maidstone Hospital.

"I understand BASE jumping has its risks but I guess so does everything in life, so I've got no regrets and I'll be back doing it again soon."