It’s difficult to say how you’d react if the person next to you started to fall off a cliff, and fortunately most of us will never find ourselves in such a position.
Would you freeze in terror or reach out a desperate arm in time to pull them back up to safety?
Unfortunately for YouTube personality Jay Alvarrez, his filmed reaction to model Mary Shum tumbling from a Mallorcan cliff earned him a pile of internet criticism.
Bikini-clad Mary had attempted to jump into the ocean, when she lost her grip. Panicking, she tried to reach to Jay for help, grabbing his ankles as she slipped perilously close to some jagged rocks.
However, his reaction was to move his legs out of the way; allowing for the sickening plunge.
The video was viewed thousands of times, and people on Reddit – where the baffling footage was shared – were confused and angry about Jay’s inaction.
Some just couldn’t understand why the young man couldn’t have at least tried to stop the woman from tumbling from the edge after she lost her footing.
However, others were slightly more sympathetic, noting how his leg jerking away was probably just a natural reaction:
He would have been dragged down with her if he let her grab him, and it’s instinct to back up if someone grabs for you.
Fortunately, Mary survived the fall, and her then-husband Alexander ‘Sasha’ Tikhomirov – who shot the footage – was able to explain the situation in more detail.
Speaking with UNILAD, Russian filmmaker Sasha said:
I filmed this with my friend. The girl who is falling is my ex wife, now we have a baby.
Mary fell on a rock first – about three meters down – and then she went into the water. She didn’t break anything, unlike people said, but she did hurt her feet and ass and back.
We went to the hospital later and she couldn’t walk for a few days. But finally everything was good.
Sasha added:
The guy who removed his leg is Jay Alvarrez.
He removed it not because he is an asshole, but because everything happened in one second.
Anyway, he probably made it better when he removed it.
Jay is a close friend of the ex-couple, and it seems as if there is no bad feeling between them.
According to Sasha, neither he nor Mary were angry at Jay for his split-second reaction. Indeed, Sasha and Jay were pictured happily hanging out together in Russia following the incident.
Sasha appears to agree with those who feel Jay was just acting on instinct, without any malicious or careless intent towards Mary.
As for adventurous Mary, she seems to have recovered wonderfully from the frightening incident, continuing to model and travel to exotic locations.
Although she had Sasha have sadly parted ways romantically, they have since welcomed a baby into the world.
How would you react if it was your mate falling from a cliff?
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.