Should Ken Swyers be on the List . . . ?

[NickDG 23]

I need some advice . . .

In November of 1980 Ken Sawyers died attempting a BASE jump from the St. Louis Gateway Arch and I'm wondering if he should be included in the BASE Fatality List. I bring it up as I've been talking to someone who knew him, and they asked why he wasn't. When you read the story below you'll see why I didn't initially include him, but now I'm thinking I should. I'd like your opinions please . . .

The ARCH
1991, The Fixed Object Journal

When he heard that a skydiver had gone in trying to land on the top of the Gateway Arch, John Louis called his friend Ken Swyers to find out who the numb nut was. If anyone knew it would be Ken, he was the USPA Area Safety Officer and was in touch with all the "fringe" jumpers. After what seemed like a long time Ken's 15-year old son answered the phone. "No, they aren't here, they went somewhere early this morning."

Ken Swyers was 33-years old when he died and it stunned the local parachuting community. He once jumpmastered a female student who died (not his fault) and it effected him greatly. After that he gained a reputation for being tough on jumpers he considered reckless.

What the World Trade Center Towers mean to jumpers in New York is what the Gateway Arch means to jumpers in St. Louis, a colossal dare to the imagination. Since its construction 20-years ago, the 638-foot high stainless steel structure is the center of focus in the city. You cannot escape the Arch, it surrounds and engulfs you. A jacket sold at Archway, the local DZ, comes with a patch that shows a jumper in freefall between the legs of the Arch.

Although Arch jumping was always a topic of conversation to locals, the problem remained how to get up there. An elevator carried tourists to the top, but only on the inside, with no way outside. Ken pondered the problem for some time before hitting upon the idea of attacking the Arch from above.

His plan became landing one parachute on the top of the Arch, and then jumping off with another. Jumping the Arch became Ken's Holy Grail and he was consumed by the mission. His wife, Millie, remembers Ken talking about an Arch jump as early as 1974. They used to spend time early in their relationship sitting in the warm sun with their backs against the massive legs of the structure.

The year 1980 was a time of great controversy between BASE jumpers and skydivers. Contempt for what USPA was calling "That's Incredible Fever" (a reference to an old TV show the likes of Real TV) was plentiful. The owner of the Archway DZ said, "I have over four thousand jumps and I still find that thrilling. I can't understand why people would look for fixed objects to jump from."

Ken tended to line up with skydivers on the issue. He showed disdain for people who did fixed object jumps, especially with the cameras rolling. Yet, Millie recalls, how excited her husband became after seeing a TV program that featured BASE jumping. At some point in early 1980 Ken's talk of an Arch jump started to sound less like dreaming and more like planning. He did recons of the grounds surrounding the Arch and he spent long hours sketching the terrain and planning his getaway.

With the help of some friends, Ken assembled a team for his assault on the Arch. One friend was to retrieve Ken's main canopy when he threw it from the top. Two others would film and take still photographs. Millie would drive the getaway car.

In the fall Ken made his first attempt. The winds were strong and the turbulence surrounding the top of the Arch caused Ken to abort his approach. He landed next to the base of the structure and sped away. His jump was only seen by a few people and except for an airborne traffic reporter who reported seeing a parachute, no one took much notice.

It wasn't until late November that he tried it again. Debate among the team on how best to approach the Arch is ongoing. They were telling him the best way is from across the 17-foot wide structure. That way, if he couldn't get purchase on the slick surface, he could just keep on going off the other side before his canopy fully deflated. Ken, however, wanted to approach the Arch spanwise. He thought this would significantly improve his chances of landing on the top. The team argued the danger of falling down one of the legs if he landed long or short. The team's plan made surviving more likely if anything went wrong, Ken's plan improved the odds for success. Ken won out.

The next problem was what should he do once he landed on the Arch. And this is where the plan starting coming apart. He seemed more concerned with what to do with his cutaway main, which was a gift from Millie, than how he was going to accomplish the second part of the jump. He decided to carefully roll up the main and drop it to a team member below. He would then just step off the top of the Arch and immediately pull his reserve handle.

The morning of November 22, 1980 was calm and clear. Ken rose early and gathered his team. A pilot was lined up to fly Ken over the Arch and they departed a small out of the way airport to avoid detection. By the time the A/C approached the Arch the winds had picked up somewhat. The team on the ground held their breath as Ken exited the plane.

They watched as Ken approached the top of the Arch and then lost sight of him and they waited. "Where was he," they wondered, "what happened?" Soon they all heard an eerie, drawn out metallic sound followed by a loud thud at the base of the Arch. The sounded reverberated back up the legs of the Arch and then all went quiet.

The silence was finally broken by screams and the pounding of feet running for the bottom of the north leg. Millie knew, without seeing, what happened. She walked the last 100 yards to her husband's body slowly. She brushed aside the few who tried to hold her back and knelled by her husband. The main canopy she bought him was still attached to his harness. She whispered something in his ear and covered him with a jacket. He lay just yards from where the couple used to sit years ago.

A witness, who remarkably turned out to be a skydiver, was coming out of her apartment, looked up at the plane and saw Ken jump. She said he landed part way down the north leg of the Arch, an area that is still relatively flat. She said his main started to deflate, but then it looked like a gust of wind caught it. The canopy pulled Ken off his feet and onto his back before he started a headfirst slide down the leg. At that point Ken pulled the reserve ripcord, but the canopy just trailed behind, and never inflated.

What surprised other jumpers so much is how poorly planned the whole thing was. He never attempted to get any blueprints of the Arch, which might have alerted him to the large air vents located on top that may had added to his troubles. He wore old tennis shoes that wouldn't give him much grip on the metal surface, and the structure was still wet from the morning dew.

Millie is sure from the moment he landed on the Arch Ken knew it was his last jump. She figures Ken had only two seconds to realize it was all going wrong before he started to slide. A battered as he was, Millie says, his face in death wasn't of a horrified person. He looked calm and relaxed. He even had that slight smile only someone close to him would recognize. "It was the kind of smile he'd get when he just put something over, done something ornery, and was waiting for everyone else to get the joke.

At the end of 1980 local news was calling the Arch jump one of the top stories of the year. Meanwhile on the wall at the Archway DZ, up on the wall, in black felt pen, it says," Ken Swyers, RIP, First Man to Stand on Top of the Gateway Arch.

-----------------------------------

So that's the dilemma. I think Ken deserves to be remembered, but I hate to raise the fatality number, for what isn't clearly a BASE jump. This story has a lot in common with the fellow who went over Niagara Falls planning to use a rocket deployed canopy to save himself, but that was probably more of a BASE jump than this was and he's not on the List. (However if I add Ken, I probably add him too.)

So what do you think, should Ken be on the List? He had no previous BASE experience from what I can find out. If you believe he should be added, then where, top section or bottom?

NickD BASE 194

[SkiD_PL8 0]

He was attempting a BASE jump. I think he deserves to be put on the list. Even though the skydive is actually what killed him it was only the means to an end - the BASE jump.

Greenie in training.

[leroydb 0]

I second

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[badenhop 0]

Wow, bummer.
With all due respect for Ken and his family,
Ken was not a BASE jumper.
Ken never did make a BASE jump.
There is no category on "The List" for wanna-be's.

==================================

I've got all I need, Jesus and gravity. Dolly Parton

http://www.AveryBadenhop.com

[SBCmac 0]

Hello Nick...

In my opinion, Yes, most definitely…

To me, a BASE jump is the whole journey around the jump and not just the freefall & canopy flight off the object I’m pursuing. If the only reason I BASE'd jumped was for the freefall or the canopy flight, it wouldn't be worth the risk to me. But the journey, and the people on the journey with me, are what makes BASE jumping worth the risk to me...

But now that I think of it… Technically… He did freefall from the object… And he did deploy a reserve on that jump… He just didn’t survive his BASE jump… But by all means, he did do a BASE jump… So in my eyes, I do see it as a BASE jump…

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[pope 0]

not a BASE jump. It was a skydive. He never released his main, right?
Keep him off the list, he got out of a plane.
pope

[pBASEtobe 0]

Quote

not a BASE jump. It was a skydive. He never released his main, right?
Keep him off the list, he got out of a plane.
pope

I second this. He didn't die doing a BASE jump, he died leading up to one.

[Lonnie 0]

I agree with Avery he never made a base jump.
On the other point the guy who attempted to jump Niagara Falls died on a base jump. He wore a single parachute rig and deployed, he didn't know what he was doing, had never made a base jump before, although had made a few skydives. His choice of equipment, and failure to execute the jump properly is what ended up killing him. Had he survived it would have been a base jump. I had that same jump planned out long before he did it, just couldn't get sponsors to give me the jetski. The fine is also set at $10,000.

NEVER GIVE UP!

[SBCmac 0]

Quote

not a BASE jump. It was a skydive. He never released his main, right?
Keep him off the list, he got out of a plane.
pope

Wow... I always find it funny how anal people get about "What Is" or "What Is NOT" a BASE jump.

Yes he did exit an airplane on the way to his BASE jump. I’m sure you have used multiple means of transportation on the way to many of your BASE jumps, including an airplane. Should you remove those jumps from your log book? No, because you were on your way to those BASE jumps.

And as far as whether or not he cutaway his main… Plenty of people jump on Bridge day with converted rigs… Not to mention, if I started BASE jumping with a Sorcerer, that has two canopies, am I not BASE jumping? Of course I’m BASE jumping…

So again… Technically… He flew in an airplane to his BASE object… He landed on the BASE object… He exited the BASE object, not in the manner as planned… He went into freefall… And finally but not least, he deployed a parachute, in fact two (with one being a reserve)…

Now I would understand the debate if we were asking this question about someone who hit the side of a barn during a skydive, but we're not… He died falling from the top of the BASE object that he intended to BASE jump from and did successfully deploy his reserve. In my book, that qualifies as a BASE jump...

Damn since we’re getting all technical about it… I’m going to go jump off my bed a couple hundred times tonight with my rig on and throw out my pilotchute… I'll log them as “pilotchute in tow”/”Other” BASE jumps…

...

Michael

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[leroydb 0]

It's all fun and games till you tweak your ankle....

Quote

Damn since we’re getting all technical about it… I’m going to go jump off my bed a couple hundred times tonight with my rig on and throw out my pilotchute… I'll log them as “pilotchute in tow”/”Other” BASE jumps…

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[SBCmac 0]

Wow... Think of this... I could even put mats down on my bedroom floor and do aerials from my bed ... And when I'm feeling risky, I'll remove the mats ...

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[leroydb 0]

next try it with out a rig... hell you wont even need a wingsuit.. unless you really wana land it and shut everone up

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[SBCmac 0]

Now your thinking... Now your thinking... I like the way you think ....

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[leroydb 0]

btw... (off topic) I am thinking about selling my S3 and getting a V1... I saw one in person today... DAMN I am impressed!.. Maybe I will keep the S3, but I would love to demo it and a SG...

Serious though, why not have a memorial or tribute part to the webpage?

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[NickDG 23]

Well, so far that's four for putting him on the List and four for keeping him off . . .

NickD BASE 194

[pringles 0]

I say no.... There is at least one on the Bottom list that were climbing to an exit point that didn't make the top of the list.

Matt Davies

[TomAiello 25]

Why not put him on the "jumpers outside the sport" section? I see some strong parallels with at least one other person who is in that section (jumping from a plane, intending a challenging stunt, not really a BASE jump, you get the idea).

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[jonstark 8]

Nope.

The kid that goes in after slipping over the edge with his rig in a bag during the approach isn't going to make the list either.

[SBCmac 0]

Quote

Why not put him on the "jumpers outside the sport" section? I see some strong parallels with at least one other person who is in that section (jumping from a plane, intending a challenging stunt, not really a BASE jump, you get the idea).

Dwain wasn't planning on landing his wing suit on the bridge and then jumping again...

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[SBCmac 0]

Quote

I say no.... There is at least one on the Bottom list that were climbing to an exit point that didn't make the top of the list.
Matt Davies

Did he have his rig on? No...

But granted... Give the guy some credit, he was on a BASE jump...

So, I have to ask... Since we're all wrapped around the freefall technicality part, what about this exaple... So you do a BASE jump and die from sudden impact, because you didn't deploy your parachute. Did you die BASE jumping or did you die after you BASE jumped??? If in that scenerio you in fact did die BASE jumping, why can you only die after a BASE jump, and have it count, but not before a BASE jump???

Furthermore... Is BASE jumping strickly the action of freefalling from a fixed object? Meaning Freefall and flying your parachute?

Damn I hope not... Because if so, I have been doing it all wrong... I thought the action of BASE jumping was simply a small, very small, portion of the big picture of what BASE represents...

If BASE jumping is simply the action of freefalling and canopy flight, I totally got into BASE for the wrong reasons... I got into BASE for what it encapsulates and not simply the freefall... Cause damn, I definitely get more freefall when skydiving...

BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

[NickDG 23]

Now it's five for and five against . . .

When the Perris Twin Otter (PV21) crashed on take off we has this same discussion. Some where saying those 16 people died skydiving and some said it had nothing to do with skydiving; they were just flying in a plane.

In my mind at the time I remember thinking if those 16 people didn't wake up that morning and decide to go skydiving they'd still be alive. But, then if someone dies in auto accident on the way to the DZ . . .

I was sort of hoping for a consensus one way or the other, but it's looking like a split decision. There's a logics lesson in this somewhere, but there's never a Vulcan around when you need one . . .

NickD BASE 194

[pBASEtobe 0]

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Some where saying those 16 people died skydiving and some said it had nothing to do with skydiving; they were just flying in a plane.

Hmm...See now I'd say they died skydiving because the plane ride up is a part of the skydive.

[NickDG 23]

>>Why not put him on the "jumpers outside the sport" section? I see some strong parallels with at least one other person who is in that section<<

Everyone on the bottom section of the List had made at least some previous BASE jumps. As far as I know Ken never BASE jumped.

Someone mentioned that Ken did jump from the top of structure, although it was unintentional, and tried to deploy a canopy. But, that begs the question does a BASE jump need to be intentional . . . ?

NickD BASE 194

[skreamer 1]

He screwed up the landing part of his skydive, never made it to the BASE part of his adventure. Some aussie did a similar stunt in Sydney (successfully).

I vote no.

[BASE813 0]

Vote = No