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ltdiver

Strange but true stories...

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An experienced parachutist filmed his own two-mile death plunge after he fell or jumped from an airplane with a video camera mounted on his helmet, apparently without realising he did not have a parachute, investigators in Louisburg, North Carolina, said. Officials declared the death Saturday of Ivan Lester McGuire, 35, of Durham, to be an accident.




What happened to 'Gear check', unreal. :S
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Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

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Is this a gag?

Forget for a moment how crazy it would be to forget to put on a rig and go all the way to altitide and jump while still not noticing it, but how the hell could all the other jumpers on the load fail to notice that the guy had no rig on?

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Not only is it not a joke, but I'm pretty sure it's not the only time, either. I remember possibly apocryphal stories of someone doing that when I first started jumping, which was before that incident.

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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Possibly this: an instructor had been dispatching static-line students all day, and lobbing out after them. He thought he had done his last load and didn't bother packing, but another load came up. He goes up without his rig, dispatches the students.... and lobs out. Story goes he did a full series on the way in. Not sure if its true though...
"If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation."
David Brent

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Good thing my instructor taught me:

Always get into the plane ready to get out.

Why would a static instructor not get in with a rig on - mine always did. When the aircraft starts to malfunction how long will you wait for the guy desperately trying to get his rig on because he ran to the plane with it slung over his shoulder...

Mind you - accidents do happen and it is a shame about this guy - i heard he had a belly camera that he could have mistaked for his chest mounted reserve.

Blue Skies

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

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Quote

Quote

An experienced parachutist filmed his own two-mile death plunge after he fell or jumped from an airplane with a video camera mounted on his helmet, apparently without realising he did not have a parachute, investigators in Louisburg, North Carolina, said. Officials declared the death Saturday of Ivan Lester McGuire, 35, of Durham, to be an accident.




What happened to 'Gear check', unreal. :S


Here is a video of this accident from deceased camera. Don't be afraid - nothing graphic, it was shown on National TV at 5 pm, back in 1988:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER0d4wcYfL0

:o

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The cameraman was in the front of a twin beech, behind the pilot. It was late on a hot summer day. The vidiot had done a fair number of jumps filming tandems, before the last one. He was using a helmet mounted camera with a chest mounted recorder, AKA, the old style setup. He climbed out past the tandem master, who was busy with the student. He did a good job on the freefall part of the tandem video, but not the landing... A very sad story.

This led to several months of us doing rig checks on the vidiots. This consisted of asking the vidiots "You got your rig on?".

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