Sep 17, 2004, 1:35 PM
Post #1 of 7
(5591 views)
Shortcut
Phila Weatherman fatality?
Can't Post
I have a friend in Phila who's been doing his best to keep my ass on the ground by citing a fatality that occurred about 20 years ago to a Phila weatherman. I couldn't find anything on it, so was curious what happened.
Tell your friend you checked it out, and that the weather man was killed by an enraged person that was sick and tired of his constantly quoting obscure references in hopes of controlling the lives of others!!
you are talking about Jimo'Brien. he had a canopy collision with another jumper at something like 4 or 500 feet. o'briens canopy was still inflated but after a short exchange of words ,he cutaway at about 200 feet.delayed a short period then pulled his square reserve at about 100 feet.the date was sept. 23 1983 at the old united parachute club in new hanover pa.
I already tried that, he didn't buy it He's lived in Philly all his life, and I lived there for 4 years, but it was after this occurred. I hadn't heard of it.
He insisted it was one of those 'my parachute didn't open' events, and doesn't believe me that a lot of incidents are human error. Something that I'm always going to do my best to minimize the risk of as much as possible.
Just from an education stance, so I can learn from it, why did he cut away if his main was still inflated? I'm assuming the other jumper was ok?
Hi Jen, Jim hit the nail on the head, sounds like this guy is a major control freak! Best way to deal with him is a lot of distance, about 12,500 feet straight up is just about right!!
It's hard to tell post mortum why he (the dude that cutaway low) made the decision he did? He "may" have thought he was higher than he was but he ain't talkin'.
People like your friend who have such a negative attitude twords skydiving are usually just trying to affirm their own FEAR!! Cool, it's "their" fear, they have to deal with it. This guy is not the first negative person who will confront you in this sport and he sure as hell wont be the last. They are everywhere!
dont know. definitely a case of loss of altitude awareness..doug selix was quoted afterwards as saying " i thought i was gonna die."after obrien cutaway, selix's main reinflated. ironically, both could have landed under the one canopy although, someone may have busted some bones,but far prefferable to dying,dont ya think? he was quite an agressive person tho as i recall.interestingly enough, shortly after this para flite ran some zero airspeed deployment tests from a hot air balloon and discovered that a square reserve "could " have opened in as little as 125 feet.
