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Parachutist Dies in N.J. After Chute Fails
A parachutist died Thursday afternoon when his parachute failed to open properly and he fell into the front yard of a private residence, authorities said. The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of family members, was an experienced jumper who had been parachuting for about 10 years, police said. The plane used in Thursday's jump was operated by the Freefall Adventures Skydiving School of Williamstown. David Pancake, an instructor at the school, told the Gloucester County Times parachutes must be deployed at about 2,000 feet to give sufficient time to operate correctly, and that the victim may have lost track of his altitude.
The accident was being investigated by county prosecutors and the Federal Aviation Administration. The last fatality reported from the skydiving school was in 2002, when a 28-year-old Brooklyn man died after his parachute failed to fully open. Last month, a 50-year-old woman was injured when she jumped from a Freefall Adventures plane and crashed into tree branches after her parachute collapsed.
| Um, mebbe I'll pick another activity, anybody need a pudgy, pear-shaped bounty-hunter in Afghanistan? |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-09-03 |
