She parachuted into powerlines - and survived Kirsten Moriarty flying her parachute, wearing her wingsuit. Photo: Rebecca Henderson It started off like any other jump. Skydiver Kirsten Moriarty and some friends jumped out of a plane in July 2010, just as she had more than 200 times in the past. But things took a dramatic turn for the worst when she went off-course and became entangled in 11,000 volt power lines at Mutdapilly, west of Brisbane. Somerset councillor Kirsten Moriarty with her book, From Dark Days to Blue Skies. "Everything had been going quite well up until that point," she laughed. ..."It was only when I opened up my parachute I realised I was nowhere near the drop zone and I wasn't going to make it back, which is fine usually. You're looking for somewhere clear and I chose what I thought was a really good paddock to land in and I never saw the power lines. While she can laugh about it now, Moriarty was lucky to survive what happened next. High-voltage electricity coursed through her body as she came into contact with two of the power lines and became a human circuit, contrary to some reports at the time. Then, an Energex spokesman said her parachute, not her body, had hit the lines first - "that would have been really nice," she said. Otherwise, the Energex spokesman said, she wouldn't have survived. She couldn't have. She almost didn't. And her injuries were nothing short of horrific. The burns from high voltage electricity burn through every layer of the skin. They also burnt through a significant part of my muscle, which unfortunately doesn't grow back," Moriarty said. So a lot of the physiotherapy was about training what I had left to take over those jobs. It went right down to the bone and tendon on my ankles, thighs and chest. Initially, I couldn't even have skin grafts, I just had to have a material called Integra that they put over the wounds to try to create a wound bed for a skin graft to take. Sixteen operations later, the journalist for The Somerset newspaper returned to work. "I prefer to write the front page story, rather than be it," she said. Before too long, Moriarty took a communications job for the Somerset Regional Council, which led, eventually, to a successful run for office - she was elected to the council in 2012. Cr Moriarty said it was unlikely she would have made that jump had it not been for her accident. "It changes your perspective on life - I'm just so grateful for everything and I feel so blessed to be here," she said. Aside from politics, Cr Moriarty has also gone on to win a silver medal at the Queensland state championships and a bronze in the Australian National Windsuiting Championships. Cr Moriarty has penned a book - From Dark Days to Blue Skies - that she hopes will inspire other people who find themselves facing such challenges. "I read a lot of real life stories when I was in hospital of people overcoming difficult life situations," she said. Hearing that other people have survived and then thrived afterwards makes our own difficulties easier to bear and also inspires each of us about our own strengths and possibilities. The book can be ordered from www.kirstenmoriarty.com.au.