Landing killed skydiver
09/20/99BECKWOURTH (AP) -- A 28-year-old San Jose man who was trying to perform aerial acrobatics died in a skydiving accident Saturday night in Plumas County. Companions said the skydiver left the plane smoothly. His chute deployed properly, but he landed too quickly while attempting some aerial acrobatics, they said.
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Five Parachutists Die in Crash
Posted: 09/19/99 00:54 EDTBRYAN, Texas (AP) — Five members of a skydiving club were killed Saturday when their skydiving airplane crashed and burned shortly after takeoff, authorities said.
The victims were aboard a 1958 Cessna 182 belonging to Ags Over Texas
that crashed about 7 p.m. near Coulter Field, said Brian Dismukes, a trooper with the Department of Public Safety. "Witnesses said the plane appeared to stall, banked to the right and then nosed down into a field from about 400 feet," he said.
Four people, including the pilot, were pronounced dead at the scene. A fifth person died a short time later at St. Joseph Regional Health Center in Bryan, Dismukes said. Victims ranged in age from 22 to 27.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board will survey the
wreckage Sunday morning and investigate what may have caused the crash, Dismukes said. Source: http://wire.ap.org
St. Louis man killed in skydiving accident
Posted: 09/06/99 08:23 AMSULLIVAN, Mo. (AP) -- A 30-year-old St. Louis man who was killed in a weekend skydiving accident in Sullivan was a licensed skydiver who had jumped 160 times before, the owner of a skydiving school said Monday.
The man, whose identity has not been released, collided with another skydiver during a routine jump at Sullivan's airport about 3 p.m. Sunday, said Jim Cowan, owner-operator of the school, Quantam Leap Skydiving Center, which operates at the airport. A weekend crowd of about 200 people was on hand when the accident occurred at Quantum Leap.
Cowan said the man was coming in on the final approach to landing at 100 feet, when a 41-year-old licensed skydiver, also from St. Louis, came in on the final approach next to him. "They didn't see each other, and their parachutes became entangled," Cowan said.
The parachutes partially collapsed and spun around each other when they made contact at 100 feet. The skydivers fell to the ground in about four seconds, said Cowan, relying on the eyewitness accounts of others.
Cowan said each skydiver successfully had jumped from a plane at 14,000 feet, and their parachutes, fully functioning, opened at 3000 feet.
A paramedic, who is also a skydiving instructor at the school, reached the men within 30 seconds of the crash. Two emergency medical technicians and a nurse also reached the men within a minute.
The men were taken by separate helicopters for a 20-minute flight to St. John's Mercy Medical Center in suburban St. Louis. The 30-year-old died at the hospital. The other was listed in satisfactory condition. His name also was not released.
AP-CS-09-06-99 1310EDT
Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch
Camera flyer died in Colorado
Late Friday afternoon, on August 27, Jay Engle died on a camera jump at The Front Range Skydivers in Calhan, CO. He had some type of problem with his main and after executing EP's, had a very hard opening on his reserve. The opening shock snapped a couple of lines and the resulting hard landing under a partial canopy took his life. Blue skies forever Jay. We have no further information from the authorities yet.
From Fox NewsMan facing DWI charge kills himself skydiving, police say
6.24 p.m. ET (2225 GMT) August 16, 1999
SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — The morning after being arrested on his second driving-while-intoxicated charge, a man fell to his death when he failed to deploy his parachute during a jump from 4,500 feet.
Scott Fletcher Southerland, 23, was arrested Saturday and released from jail the next day. He jumped to his death later Sunday from a plane used by a company called Skydive Skyranch, where Southerland was a regular.
Southerland was an experienced parachutist and used his own gear for the jump — his 95th.
"He went into a deliberate maneuver called a track," said Wolf Grulkey, the Skyranch owner and pilot of the plane. "It moves you across the sky horizontally. We never saw his chute open, and immediately we thought something was wrong. It appears he may have wanted to take his own life."
If Southerland had been unconscious or had a malfunction, he would have tumbled as he fell, Grulkey said.
Grulkey said Southerland's rig was equipped with a device that would have automatically deployed a parachute at 750 feet. The lines connecting Southerland's reserve chute to his harness had been cut, he said. Southerland had borrowed a knife from a staff member before boarding the plane, Grulkey said.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/0816/n_ap_0816_239.sml
NTSB Identification: CHI99MA269
Accident occurred JUL-31-99 at MARINE CITY, MI
Aircraft: Beech 65 A-90, registration: N518DM
Injuries: 10 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
On July 31, 1999, at approximately 0830 eastern daylight time, a Beech King Air 65 A-90, N518DM, operated by the Parahawks Skydiving Center, impacted the ground after takeoff from runway 22 at the Marine City Airport, Marine City, Michigan. The pilot and nine skydivers were fatally injured. The aircraft was destroyed by
impact forces and a post impact fire.
The 14 CFR Part 91 flight had departed the Marine City Airport on a local skydiving flight and was not on a flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions existed at the time of the accident. Witnesses reported the airplane climbed to about 150 to 250 feet above ground level (agl), clearing a 90 foot high power line. The aircraft then went into a steep left bank and impacted the ground in a steep nose low attitude. Local weather was scattered clouds at 15,000 feet, an overcast layer at 25,000 feet, winds from 200 degrees at 10 knots, and surface temperature of 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: http://www.ntsb.gov/Aviation/Accident.htm |
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