You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Parachutist Dies in N.J. After Chute Fails
2004-09-03
A parachutist died Thursday afternoon when his parachute failed to open properly and he fell into the front yard of a private residence, authorities said. The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of family members, was an experienced jumper who had been parachuting for about 10 years, police said. The plane used in Thursday's jump was operated by the Freefall Adventures Skydiving School of Williamstown. David Pancake, an instructor at the school, told the Gloucester County Times parachutes must be deployed at about 2,000 feet to give sufficient time to operate correctly, and that the victim may have lost track of his altitude.
Bad time to lose focus.
The accident was being investigated by county prosecutors and the Federal Aviation Administration. The last fatality reported from the skydiving school was in 2002, when a 28-year-old Brooklyn man died after his parachute failed to fully open. Last month, a 50-year-old woman was injured when she jumped from a Freefall Adventures plane and crashed into tree branches after her parachute collapsed.
Um, mebbe I'll pick another activity, anybody need a pudgy, pear-shaped bounty-hunter in Afghanistan?
Posted by:Steve White

#5  Mike---Talk about dipping deep in the luck barrel! I read about a guy that jumped out of a bomber at 10,000 ft and hit a deep snowdrift and lived. As for me, I will remain nice and cozy in the cockpit of my C172P, snugly strapped in with my 4-point inertia reel harness.......until the plane is stopped and I can step down to the tarmac without parachute assist, thank you veddy much!
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-09-03 8:38:31 PM  

#4  .com -

Actually, about six to eight feet. We had an instance when I was stationed in OH in the early nineties when a lady jumped and had a failure of both her main and reserve - she landed in a marsh on her back, and lived to tell about it. The local newsies had a picture of where she landed - and may God forgive me, but it was a perfect lady-on-her-back shaped hole right out of a Warner Bros. cartoon, the wet ground being what saved her. Witnesses saw her actually bounce ABOVE the low trees and bushes in the area. She was in the hospital for more than a year but made a full recovery.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2004-09-03 2:00:39 PM  

#3  How high will they bounce?
Posted by: .com   2004-09-03 1:42:38 AM  

#2  David "Flatter Than A" Pancake, an instructor at the school ...

I think we've isolated the problem here. Besides, you know what they say about people who jump out of fully operational airplanes ...
Posted by: Zenster   2004-09-03 1:25:57 AM  

#1  One of my best friends is an avid skydiver, but I see little reason to jump out of a plane unless it is on fire, the controls are slack, and at least one wing has come off.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-09-03 1:22:42 AM  

00:00