Veteran who survived leap from burning plane hopes to inspire with survival tale

A former SAS trooper who was severely injured after jumping from a burning plane has said he hopes people will “take strength” from his story.

Jamie Hull, who lives in London is releasing a book about his experiences after he was given a 5% chance of survival.

The 45-year-old told the PA news agency that the book is “ultimately about having the will to survive and that will to win and fight back to some semblance of normality”.

While serving in the armed forces, Mr Hull, then 32, was seriously injured after jumping from a plane which had caught fire during a training flight and was about to crash.

He suffered 63% third- and fourth-degree burns to his body, and remained in hospital for a total of two years.

The former SAS trooper has now written a book titled Life On A Thread about his accident, the aftermath and his recovery, and his achievements since.

“It was a significant ordeal to myself at the time,” he told PA.

“I spent all in all two years in the hospital as an in-patient … through the help of some expert medical intervention from 2007 to 2009, I was able to crawl back from the brink.”

Since recovering from his injuries, which required more than 60 operations, Mr Hull has taken on several major challenges in support of Help For Heroes.

The veteran has run two marathons, undertaken a 3,000-mile bicycle race across America and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

He told PA: “Many people have sustained difficulty in their own lives and indeed the pandemic has brought about its own difficulties and challenges for a lot of us.

“I think people would be interested to read the story, they could take strength from it and hopefully they will feel some happy sentiment going forwards.”