Bungee instructors were racing to clear queue of thrillseekers when they failed to connect woman who then fell to her death, says adventurer who had jumped hours earlier

By NICK FAGGE, SENIOR REPORTER and MATT ROPER Published: 00:56, 16 June 2026 | Updated: 00:58, 16 June 2026 An adventurer who bungee jumped from the same bridge just hours before a 21-year-old woman was launched to her death without a safety rope has claimed the organisers 'let standards slip' amid a huge backlog of thrill-seekers waiting for a turn. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, died after plunging around 130ft from the abandoned Skeleton Bridge in Limeira, São Paulo state, in an incident captured on shocking video that has since spread widely online. According to local reports, she had requested to perform an 'airplane-style' jump, in which she was lifted onto the shoulders of two instructors with her arms outstretched before being released from the bridge. The aspiring physical education teacher is reported to have paid £27 for the jump, as well as extra for a 360-degree GoPro camera that can be seen in her hand before the jump. Now a man, who identified himself only as Emanuel, has come forward to tell how he believes the pressure of clearing a queue of waiting participants after rain delays may have contributed to the tragedy. Emanuel said he was the second of 93 people to jump from the bridge that day but believes the pressure of clearing a queue of waiting participants after rain delays may have led to the tragedy. The GoPro device has not been recovered and police believe it could be key to reconstructing the final moments before the tragedy, including any instructions given to Maria Eduarda and whether it recorded the fatal jump. Speaking to Brazilian influencer Diego Schueng, Emanuel shared footage of his own jump at the same spot on Saturday morning. Tragically the victim, who has been named locally as Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, had posted photographs of her jump wristbands and the bridge just moments before the incident Video taken at the scene shows Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, being taken to the edge by the bungee jump instructors before being thrown into the ravine The video shows the bungee cord securely attached to his leg before he leaps from the bridge - in stark contrast to the footage of Maria Eduarda's fatal jump, in which what appears to be the same cord can be seen lying coiled on the bridge behind her. He remembered how he initially felt reassured that 'the equipment looked secure and everything seemed to be in order. From the group communications to the individual briefings and when I arrived to jump, I felt safe.' Emanuel completed his jump without incident, but says that as the team rushed to get through the other waiting participants, their conduct left 'a lot to be desired'. He said: 'It was a very atypical day. It had rained, there were delays and there were many people waiting to jump. In my perception as a participant, the organisation left a lot to be desired. 'Obviously what happened is not acceptable and cannot be explained away. But in my opinion there was a lack of professionalism. The positive impression I had of the experience completely fell apart.' Maria Eduarda's fiancé, who had travelled to the bridge with her and witnessed the horrifying incident, reportedly became so distressed after seeing her plunge that he suffered a medical emergency and was taken to a local hospital. Yesterday, a nurse who happened to be visiting the site as a tourist said she scrambled down a steep embankment in a desperate bid to save Maria Eduarda after seeing the 21-year-old plunge from the bridge. Rayza Dias told Brazilian TV programme Domingo Espetacular that she found the student still showing faint signs of life. Video taken at the scene shows the young woman being taken to the edge by the staff before being thrown into the ravine Bystanders can be heard frantically shouting in the background, 'the rope, people, the rope', in the seconds after she was released 'I saw that she was breathing heavily and checked her pupils - both were dilated. I also felt a pulse. It was weak, but she still had one,' she said. The nurse said she spoke to Maria Eduarda in an effort to keep her conscious while waiting for further help, but she had suffered multiple traumatic injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Following the tragedy, two men fled the scene but were tracked down with police helicopters. Six people were taken in for questioning, with three men - Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, and Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27 - remanded in custody on allegations of homicide with dolo eventual, a Brazilian legal concept broadly equivalent to acting with implied intent. The charge alleges the defendants accepted or consciously assumed the risk that their actions could result in death, even if causing a fatality was not their direct intention. According to investigators, the instructors appeared 'disoriented' during questioning and were unable to say whose responsibility it had been to secure the rope or carry out the final safety check before the jump. One of the men, Feliciano Egoroff, admitted the team had no fixed division of responsibilities when it came to safety checks. In a statement to investigators, he reportedly said: 'Sometimes one of us wouldn't put it on, another would check it, another would check it, another would put it on. Sometimes one person would do it and another would come over to see if it was right. That's more or less how it worked.' Asked who should have attached Maria Eduarda's safety equipment or carried out the final inspection before her jump, Egoroff reportedly replied that he could not remember. Three men were arrested for homicide with eventual intent following the tragic death The missing camera has become a focus of the investigation after another witness claimed he saw a member of staff remove it from Maria Eduarda's body moments after she hit the ground. Rafael Goulard, who said he was waiting in line to jump, claimed he watched an employee detach the GoPro camera from around her neck while she lay on the ground. He told Brazil's EPTV channel: 'The first thing I remember was seeing one of the staff members remove the GoPro from around her neck while she was already lying on the ground. Whether he was trying to hide evidence or was simply concerned about the value of the equipment, I don't know.' He added that the men didn't say anything to the other waiting participants following the fall. 'They were in a catatonic state. I don't know whether they were struggling to understand what they had done or were simply worried about hiding or running away,' he said. The men appeared to be working for bungee jump operator Entre Cordas and Lh Voei, a linked instructor brand. Entre Cordas' Instagram page, which advertised 'a jump to the extraordinary', was reportedly taken down after the death. Maria Eduarda had uploaded a string of social media posts in the hours and minutes before the tragedy. In one post on Instagram at 7.31am, next to a banner of the Entre Cordas company, she wrote: 'Who is the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?'. Another chilling post captured a road sign with a depiction of a skeleton that read: 'Danger. Risk of death'. In an Instagram story, posted at around 7.30am, the woman showed the bridge and the grassland below, along with the caption: 'Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?' Rayza Dias, who rushed to Rodrigues de Freitas's aid, said that the young woman was shockingly still alive immediately after the fall Rodrigues de Freitas was an aspiring physical education teacher. She was buried in São Paulo on Sunday In a third story, she showed off her paper wristbands, which branded messages: 'Welcome aboard the ropes!', 'I'm going to fly', and 'take off authorised'. Maria Eduarda was buried in São Paulo on Sunday, where friends and colleagues remembered her passion for sport, and how she dreamed of becoming a school PE teacher and inspiring children through sport. The gym where she worked shared an emotional message after her death, writing: 'Duda, your light, your joy and your energy will always remain with us. You left far too soon, but the memories we shared will stay in our hearts forever.' Following her funeral her mother Valnenia broke her silence over her daughter's tragic death, writing: 'That damned rope took you away from me forever. My beloved daughter, you are gone, and all that remains here is pain and longing. I will love you forever.' No comments have so far been submitted. 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