Skydiver's 'milestone' jump tragedy
A Royal Navy skydiver died on his 500th jump in front of hundreds of spectators. The jump should have been an important milestone for Lieutenant David Paton. An inquest was told on Thursday that Lieutenant Paton was part of the Raiders Parachute Display Team when he landed heavily during a display in Portsmouth.
The accident happened at HMS Excellent on 25 July this year.
Tony Butler, a parachuting expert, told the inquest Lieutenant Paton could have been trying to perform a "spectacular swooping landing", but had not timed it correctly.
He added: "Mr Paton might have thought he was going to hit a building and turned, but did not have sufficient height to land safely."
Lieutenant Paton had jumped with five other members from a Sea King helicopter at 7,000 feet in perfect conditions.
Everything had gone according to plan, with the Raiders linking up and then separating to land, the inquest in Portsmouth heard.
However, as they landed in front of families at the show, the leader of the display Lieutenant Commander Phil Gibbs, who was first to land, looked back to see Lieutenant Paton.
He told the South East Hampshire Coroners' Court: "I saw a parachutist making a very hard diving turn to the left and he ploughed into the ground at the edge of the arena.
"I probably saw the last two seconds. It was all over very quickly. I knew that something was wrong and that someone was injured over there."
Lieutenant Paton, who had just completed his second year of an engineering degree at Southampton University, was taken to hospital with multiple injuries, but died later.
Mr Butler, a technical officer with the British Parachute Association, said it was not possible to say exactly why Lieutenant Paton had hit the ground so hard, as his parachute was not faulty.
Deputy coroner Peter Latham recorded a verdict of accidental death.
~ BBC
'Invastion' of Army recruiters unnerves jittery Austinites
Hundreds of people called 911 Tuesday after seeing six parachutists who were trailing plumes of red smoke land at Austin High School. "People thought we were being invaded," said Ed Harris Jr., director of emergency communications for the Austin Police Department.
Wrong. It was the Army's Golden Knights parachute team landing as part of a recruitment drive.
It certainly didn't look like that to Leila Levinson, who called 911 about the soldiers with black and yellow parachutes she saw floating through the air as she drove down MoPac Boulevard.
"I saw everybody put on their brakes and pull over to the side," Levinson said. "My heart started pounding, because I thought it was anthrax or smallpox and I was evaluating how far it was from my son's school."
The landing was reminiscent of the 1984 movie "Red Dawn," in which invading communist paratroopers land at a Colorado high school. No invaders, Tuesday's paratroopers graciously greeted students, said Kathy Uplinger, an assistant principal at Austin High.
The Golden Knights frequently appear at schools and public events, said 1st Sgt. Harlan Dobbs of the Army's recruiting division. "I've been in recruiting for 12 years and watched them jump 30 times and never had anything happen like this," he said. "Everybody is in a state of alert right now."
The Federal Aviation Administration, city and school district police and the media had been notified of the jump, officials said. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said the Army is careful to work with communities where the parachute team is jumping. "We are greatly empathetic with the concerns of the community."
~ American-Statesman.
Building Escape Parachutes - Good or Bad Idea?
Precision Aerodynamics is one of at least two manufacturers who have been advertising emergency escape chutes for high-rise buildings. Although the concept of using parachutes as a last ditched effort to escape from a building isn't new there has been new interest in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks in New York. Below is an exert from Precision Aerodynamics' web site. Let us know what you think of the idea.
Emergency Building Escape Parachutes - A complete system ready to go including carrying bag and video. Training Required
The EscapeChute is our emergency parachute system that has been specifically developed for low altitude exit and deployment. A typical scenario for its use might be by high-rise tenants in the event of fire or earthquake.
You would never travel beyond swimming range from shore without the benefit of a life preserver. If you work or live in a high-rise building at an elevation that is beyond the reach of firefighting or rescue apparatus, your best hope for an emergency escape might not be found in the crowded stairwell. With the EscapeChute, you might easily deliver yourself to safety within a few precious seconds at a time during which those few precious seconds may make all the difference.
The EscapeChute canopy design is a slight variation of our popular B.A.S.E. equipment that is commonly used by sport enthusiasts who jump from low elevations like cliffs, bridges, and buildings, etc.
By following the simple instructions, the parachute is automatically deployed for you. All you have to do to initiate deployment is to jump out the window and away from the building. Simple steering and landing techniques can deliver you to the surface with confidence.
The EscapeChute is available in 8 different sizes for persons ranging from 100-250 lbs. Contact PA for detailed information.
Custom Order - from $1575.00
Let us know what you think in the forums, and take our poll on the main page.
Third Fatality in Eight Days at Skydive Chicago
DAYTON TOWNSHIP. The third skydiver to die in eight days at Skydive Chicago in Dayton Township was killed Sunday afternoon. Bruce A. Greig, 38, of Jacksonville fell to earth at about 12:46 p.m. when witnesses reported his parachute failed to properly deploy, according to La Salle County Coroner Jody Bernard.
Greig landed on Skydive Chicago property south of the hangar. He was taken by ambulance to Community Hospital of Ottawa, where he was pronounced dead at 1:30 p.m.
An autopsy was scheduled for today and the Federal Aviation Administration was notified.
Greig was an experienced jumper, according to his father, Curt Greig, of Jacksonville.
"He loved skydiving and talked about it all the time", Curt Greig said in a subdued voice. He was there (Chicago Skydive) every weekend and loved that group (fellow parachutists) up there.
Curt Greig said his son was a friend of Deborah Luhmann and Steven Smith, who died Oct. 6 in a skydiving mishap at Chicago Skydive and attended their funerals last week.
Bruce Greig was a program installer with AGI based in Melrose Park.
Skydiver died from mid-air collision
An experienced skydiver died when he fractured his skull in a mid-air collision with one of his best friends, an inquest heard on Tuesday. Robert Monk, 39, from Bedminster in Bristol, was on holiday with two friends at a Spanish parachuting centre when the accident happened on 28 July.
Mr Monk's friend, Elliot Borthwick, also 39 and from Bristol, told the inquest at Bristol coroner's court that the three had skydived together many times and were planning to jump in a "sit-up" formation, with their legs linked as they were free-falling.
At the last moment before jumping out of the plane, they decided to open their parachutes earlier than usual, but Mr Monk apparently forgot about the change of plan.
When the other two opened their parachutes, Mr Monk remained in free-fall at a speed of 130mph and crashed into his friend John Carew's leg, fracturing his skull.
"We were smiling and laughing and having fun," Mr Borthwick recalled. "When we separated I flipped over and opened my chute. I looked under me and saw Rob and John [Carew] still linked together." He saw Mr Carew jettison his parachute and use his reserve parachute, but he could not see Mr Monk.
"Because we were so far from the drop zone, when it came to break away at 6,000ft, I think Rob reverted to our old thing of coming back together after we had broken off," said Mr Borthwick.
He thought that Mr Carew was unaware that his friend had flown back towards him, and as he opened his parachute his leg collided with Mr Monk's head.
Rescuers found Mr Monk's body near Castello de Cempurias, about 30 miles from Gerona in north-east Spain.
Two hours after the accident Mr Carew, 35, from Birmingham, was found unconscious in a field of maize. He awoke in hospital to find surgeons had had to amputate part of his leg.
Mr Carew spent a week in a Spanish hospital before returning to Birmingham.
The fatal jump was the group's final one on their holiday in Emporia Brava, one of Europe's biggest skydiving locations.
The Avon and District coroner, Paul Forrest, recorded a verdict of accidental death. "There was a mid-air collision which resulted in the deceased free-falling to his death. He received a fracture of the cranium, as was certified in Spain," he ruled.
Park service denies claim by jumper
Like approximately 300 fellow BASE jumpers and more than 200 rappellers, 73-year-old Jim Guyer has been grounded from Bridge Day 2001. And he's fighting mad about it. "It broke my heart to talk to the folks at the Holiday Inn about the cancellation," Guyer, a resident of Hendersonville, N.C., said Friday. "There's going to be millions of dollars lost in economy for the local area."
"If they don't hold Bridge Day, they better stop every pro football game coming up Sunday," he continued. "What's the difference? It's absurd."
Guyer alleges the National Park Service is seizing the cancellation of this year's festival as a means of halting Bridge Day altogether. In fact, he says that in early September he talked to an assistant superintendent for the New River Gorge National River named West, and that West said the NPS "wanted to get rid of it (Bridge Day) anyway."
Henry Law, assistant superintendent at the local NPS headquarters in Glen Jean, said it was he who talked to Guyer, and Law refuted Guyer's interpretation of his remarks.
"That's totally untrue (that he said the NPS wanted to abolish Bridge Day)," Law remarked. "The National Park Service is not in any way, shape or form trying to shut Bridge Day down.
"The decision to cancel it this year was with the Bridge Day Commission. We have one person on that. We're not the overriding factor."
Guyer has recently been twice denied by the NPS in his quest for a permit to skydive from El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park, decisions he's appealed to the Department of the Interior. And he's been vocal to various lawmakers concerning his displeasure with the NPS.
"The NPS wants to have control over the people," Guyer said.
"I was simply trying to give him (Guyer) a nice piece of advice," Law remarked. "I told him that if he continues in the courts, it may affect future activities in all national park properties, including Bridge Day.
"He (Guyer) believes what he wants to hear."
Guyer, an engineer who first began parachuting a half century ago but only recently took up skydiving and BASE jumping activities, participated in Bridge Day 2000, his first.
In place of a full-fledged Bridge Day, Guyer - a Korean War veteran and a retiree from Phillip Morris Co. - has proposed to Fayette County Sheriff Bill Laird that a scaled-down Bridge Day ceremony be staged Oct. 20, one that would allow five people to jump off the bridge in a symbolic gesture, as well as having a short, patriotic-themed ceremony to honor those felled by recent terrorist attacks.
© The Register-Herald 2001
Double Fatality at Skydive Chicago
DAYTON TOWNSHIP. Two people, including an Ottawa woman, plunged to their deaths Saturday morning in a skydiving mishap north of Ottawa. Deborah Luhmann, 27, of Ottawa, formerly of Lake in the Hills, and Steven Smith, 44, of Ohio, Ill., were pronounced dead at 10 a.m. Saturday in the emergency room at Community Hospital of Ottawa, said La Salle County Coroner Jody Bernard.
Bernard said witnesses reported Luhmann's and Smith's parachutes became entangled about 75 to 100 feet above the ground, causing the chutes to deflate.
Luhmann and Smith landed on Skydive Chicago property, north of the hangar.
The two victims were were part of a 20-person team practicing for a national competition to be held in a few weeks.
Local weather conditions Saturday were sunny, temperatures were in the mid-50s and winds were up to 20 mph.
Autopsies were performed Sunday, but the results will not be available for some time. The La Salle County Sheriff's Department is investigating the incident.
Luhmann was an experienced, certified skydiver with 200 jumps, according to her brother, Paul Luhmann, of Chicago. She started skydiving last year and usually jumped every weekend.
"It was a very freak thing," Paul Luhmann said. "My sister was very responsible. Skydiving wasn't a stupid thrill for her. Strangely enough, for a skydiver she wasn't a risk taker. She was very responsible and logical."
Luhmann was engaged to marry Donovan Bartlett, of Ottawa, formerly of Barrington, on June 22, 2002. She worked as a systems program manager for Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire.
Skydiving was the latest manifestation of Luhmann's passion for athletics, according to her brother. She was an All-America swimmer at Denison University in Ohio and later a swimming coach for the Palatine Park District.
Paul Luhmann said that although his sister's time was cut short, she packed a lot of experiences into her life.
"She had so much ahead of her, but had already lived so much."
With the deaths of Luhmann and Smith, 10 people have died in accidents at Skydive Chicago since the facility opened near Ottawa in 1993. The most recent previous victim was a Pennsylvania woman who was killed July 9 when her chute failed to inflate.
FAA ruling grounds Bay Area Skydiving
BYRON -- With warm Indian summer weather still lingering, the Byron Airport would have been busy this weekend with people eager to jump out of airplanes -- with parachutes, of course. But the tiny airport and its biggest business, Bay Area Skydiving, has been quiet since Tuesday. No planes have arrived or departed.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday placed a flight ban at all airports within 10 nautical miles, or about 11.5 miles, of several nuclear facilities in the United States. Byron is near the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
"It's dead out there. Obviously nothing is happening," said David Mendez, manager of county airports. The ban does not extend to police, fire and other emergency crews who might need to land at the airport, Mendez said.
The ban ends at midnight Wednesday.
The tiny Tracy Municipal Airport is also feeling the pinch, particularly at the Tracy Flight Center. It has been unable to run since the ban began. Steve Dietrich, the flight center's office manager, said the ban has cost the school money.
Mike Tjaarda, owner of Bay Area Skydiving, estimated he's lost between $15,000 and $20,000, and turned away at least 40 first-time jumpers since Tuesday.
"We're continually turning down business," Tjaarda said. "Some of these people are going elsewhere, which is an unfortunate thing for us, and it's bad for the county, too, because they're not spending their money here."
Though the ban has been tough for Tjaarda, he said it was a small price to pay to own his own business and to be a part of the nation's fight against terrorism.
"If my country needs me to do anything, that's fine. We're Americans first. If that means I have to find another job, I will. We're Americans first. It's not all about making money," Tjaarda said.
East County commuters who store their planes at Byron Airport, and who get to work by air, have been forced to use alternatives.
Discovery Bay pilot Rick Mann said the ban has forced him to drive to his Hayward business and postpone business trips to Fresno. He also had to forego a flight on Halloween to Marysville, where he planned to take his daughter trick-or-treating.
"The big thing is not being able to get back and forth to work. The plane is actually stranded there. We can't move it," Mann said.
Randy Howell, who owns eight Russian MiG-17 jets and two Boeing L-39 fighter jets, said the ban has not affected his business. He stages air shows around the country which are mostly held February through October.
Skydiver sues after jump leaves him a quadriplegic
A Grande Prairie man is suing the operators of the Edmonton Skydive Centre for $5.4 million over a jump that went wrong and left him a quadriplegic.
In a lawsuit filed with the Court of Queen's Bench, John Minue says he took parachuting lessons through the centre in September 1999 which included basic training in jumping from an airplane and landing.
His instructor told him that to land safely he had to "flare," a procedure that controls the speed of the parachute as it approaches the ground, according to the statement of claim.
The instructor was supposed to let him know over a one-way radio when to flare, the lawsuit says.
It alleges that once Minue jumped, he was directed away from the landing zone to a field, but communication ceased before he was told to flare.
Minue claims he landed at high speed and out of control, making him tumble forward when he hit the ground.
This caused serious injuries, including spinal-cord damage that resulted in quadriplegia, fractured neck vertebrae, a broken thigh and a dislocated shoulder, the lawsuit says.
The document says that as a result of his injuries, he will need care and supervision from an attendant for the rest of his life.
It doesn't state what his current state of health is, however.
Minue contends his instructor and Para Aerosvc Inc., which operates the centre, were negligent for not telling him he might need to flare on his own if radio communication failed.
They also breached their agreement to provide adequate training for a beginner to learn to skydive safely, the lawsuit says.
Among other problems, he claims he wasn't properly instructed in landing procedures and shouldn't have been directed to an area where it was harder to land.
Statements of claim contain allegations which haven't been proven in court.
No statement of defence has been filed in the case.
Two fatalities in Australia
The double tragedy of two experienced skydivers plunging to their deaths in separate accidents has failed to deter hundreds of other thrill seekers taking to Sydney's skies. Brendan Cook, 34, from Griffith in Canberra, and Jethro Thornton, 24, from Ermington in Sydney's west, died yesterday after their parachutes failed at the Sydney Skydiving Centre in Picton, on the city's southwestern outskirts.
Jumps were suspended yesterday, but Sydney Skydiving Centre owner Phil Onis said it was business as usual today with about 400 people expected to jump.
"The investigation is still underway ... (however) we are operating as per usual ... (with about) 400 jumps per day," he said.
Police and paramedics were called to the centre yesterday when the first man fell to the ground sustaining critical injuries.
Then, to their horror, a second man fell to his death as they watched.
The first accident was about 11am (AEST) when Mr Cook's parachute failed.
He had notched up hundreds of jumps and held an international skydiving licence.
He later died in Liverpool Hospital.
Three hours later, the equally experienced Mr Thornton fell to his death when his parachute failed to open.
There had not been a fatality at the centre for 15 years and staff were still in shock, Mr Onis said.
Police were still gathering evidence for a coronial inquest into the deaths, a police spokeswoman said.
Australian Parachute Federation NSW safety officer Leigh Shepherd said skydiving centres observe strict safety measures.
"The extremes we go to for safety are very high," Mr Shepherd said.
"Obviously, two incidents have now happened but until that's investigated we can't say why.
"My understanding is there's nothing the drop zone could have done to supervise it any closer or prevent it."
He said there was a 0.03 per cent chance of being injured during a solo jump and even less probability in a tandem jump.
There has not been a skydiving fatality in NSW for two years.
"I'm still confident that the most dangerous thing we do each weekend is drive to the drop zone rather than the actual skydiving," Mr Shepherd said.
"I'd still encourage people to come and try and when you try tandem, it's still the safest way to do it."
It is standard practice for skydivers to sign an indemnity form acknowledging they risk serious injury or even death when they skydive.
Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter which airlifted Mr Cook to Liverpool Hospital, said it has airlifted three patients involved in serious skydiving incidents since March.