RE: "Where's the chute?" 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
I remember this incident (I have been skydiving since 1968). The deceased was a videographer, not an instructor and as such did not "...spend all day videotaping the students...". There were two contributing factors to this incident, the fatigue of the jumper at the end of the day and he had a two part camera system (camera on his head and recording deck on his chest). To hold the recording deck he had made a harness that closely resembled his rig. He sat in the plane with his back to a bulkhead and was the last "stick" or group to exit. He videotaped a tandem pair and of course fell to his death.
The FAA violated the pilot for this mishap, quite severely if I remember correctly, even though the pilot was in a seperate compartment of the airplane.
This was a trajic accident and I personally don't feel it is worthy of a darwin mention. The person was not doing anything crazy or stupid, much as the case in a car accident or plane crash.
Contact the United States Parachute Association at www.uspa.org for more detail on this incident.
Blue skies - Jack Guthrie Submitted on 12/06/2002
Submitted by:
Jack Guthrie
Reference:
this web page
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