Landing on his back with a thud, teenager Jake McCollum didn’t fancy his survival chances after falling 80 metres from a mountain in a national park.
‘I remember thinking it was probably all over for me,’ he said.
The 18-year-old was ‘pretty banged up’ after plummeting from Mount Walsh north of Brisbane, abruptly ending his first solo bushwalk.
He suffered a fractured spine, broken ribs, internal bleeding and a ‘decent’ head laceration.
Crawling over to his backpack, Mr McCollum activated a personal identification beacon – a portable device that sends a distress signal and location to emergency services – and hoped for the best.
The mobile phone he had used to take a photo of the view from the mountain’s summit just moments earlier was smashed.
Yet half an hour after his mountain fall, Mr McCollum heard a call coming through his ‘hand me down’ AirPods.
By the time he had crawled over to collect his Bluetooth headphones he had missed 10 calls.
+4
View gallery
Jake McCollum (pictured centre, with his parents Tim and Rachel) suffered a fractured spine, broken ribs, internal bleeding and a cut to the head after falling 80 metres during a hike
+4
View gallery
Mr McCollum plummeted from Mount Walsh, north of Brisbane, during his first solo bushwalk
TRENDING
Prince William is ‘banned from using e-scooter’ at new forever home
7.6k viewing now
We reveal family privately worry Charles has gone too far with Andrew
41.7k viewing now
Suzanne’s fragile body shattered in front of me. Her scream haunts me
11.7k viewing now
Thankfully it rang again and Mr McCollum tapped on his AirPods to answer – it was his mum.
‘I heard really, really faintly “mum, I’m hurt really bad”,’ Rachel McCollum said on Friday as she recalled the November 2025 incident.
‘It’s probably the worst news you can ever hear.
‘I don’t know how many times he said during that phone call “I think I’m going to die”.’
His mother stayed on the phone with father Tim, relaying messages to authorities searching for their son as they completed the 90-minute drive from their Bundaberg home to the mountain.
Mr McCollum’s position was difficult to locate – he had not used the main trail and his beacon was ‘bouncing off boulders’, confusing the coordinates.
Then the AirPods’ batteries died.
But Mr McCollum pressed his ears against his damaged phone and somehow could hear his parents’ faint voices as a rescue helicopter approached.
+4
View gallery
Mr McCollum was able to use his AirPods to answer a call which led to his rescue
+4
View gallery
The 18-year-old activated a personal identification beacon which allowed rescuers to find him
‘When the helicopter did arrive, I remember thinking “oh, this is great” but then it went right past me,’ he said.
‘I was talking through the phone and saying (to his parents) “it’s gone past me, it’s gone past me!” – it was back and forth for quite a while.’
Five hours after Mr McCollum’s fall, LifeFlight aircrew officer Shayne White finally saw the teen’s legs in the thick canopy.
It took an hour for the rescue team to stabilise him before he was stretchered over to a winch site and taken away by helicopter.
Barely two months later, the McCollums enjoyed an emotional reunion with the rescue team.
‘He’s a very lucky boy with a good outcome,’ Mr White said on Friday.
‘If his AirPods and phone weren’t working, we might not have found him.’
News
THE 10 WORDS FANS CAN’T STOP READING: Kyle Busch’s final note, found near his racing suit, is now raising heartbreaking questions… 👇👇
By Sports Desk The story spread because it sounded like the kind of final clue fans desperately wanted to believe. A handwritten note.A racing suit.A garage.Ten words that somehow explained what Kyle Busch never got to say. But so far, there is no verified public report confirming that Kyle Busch’s family found a final letter […]
Six days after his final victory, Kyle Busch passed away—and the question that still haunts fans is how, long before that, his body had warned him that he had tried to hide it from his family…
Six days before his death, Kyle Busch was still standing in Victory Lane. He had just won again, doing what he had done for most of his life: competing, pushing, answering questions like a driver already looking toward the next race. When asked why winning still mattered, Busch gave an answer that now feels impossible […]
Before being hospitalized and dying from sepsis, before NASCAR fell silent — Kyle Busch left behind a final image that his family will live with for the rest of their lives
Before the hospital.Before NASCAR fell silent.Before the word “sepsis” turned a racing tragedy into something even harder for fans to understand. There was one final image. Kyle Busch was still a father at a karting track, standing near his son Brexton, watching him race. It was an ordinary scene for a racing family: a champion […]
Kyle Busch’s illness accelerates faster than anyone predicted — but his last words to his wife and doctor leave everyone haunted by the true cause of his death… 👇👇
Kyle Busch was still close to the world he knew best when his body began to fail. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion had raced only days earlier. He had won a Craftsman Truck Series event at Dover six days before his death. He was still connected to preparation for the Coca-Cola 600 when a […]
TIRE TRACKS in Kruger Forest CHANGED EVERYTHING: The murders of Ernst Marais and Dina Marais haunted their families; their bodies bore four shocking wounds
By Africa Crime Desk At first, the horror seemed contained inside Kruger National Park. Two elderly tourists were missing.Then two bodies were found near Crooks Corner.Then their vehicle vanished. But the case changed when rangers found the tracks. The murders of Ernst Marais, 71, and Dina Marais, 73, have shaken South Africa and raised urgent […]
FROM MURDER SCENE TO BORDER TRAIL: Four wounds on Ernst and Dina Marais raised horror — but the tire tracks may be the clue that exposes where the killers went next… 👇👇
At first, the horror seemed contained inside Kruger National Park. Two elderly tourists were missing.Then two bodies were found near Crooks Corner.Then their vehicle vanished. But the case changed when rangers found the tracks. The murders of Ernst Marais, 71, and Dina Marais, 73, have shaken South Africa and raised urgent questions about security in […]
End of content
No more pages to load
