Man goes up in skydiving plane, forgets one thing...

...a chute.

Splat.
http://www.fox23news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=d4d6ee34-2cb9-4369-b08d-e282b50f8ed9

 

Didn't seem like he forgot anything. Sounds like he wanted to go that way. Pathetic. Imagine being the homeowner trying to collect from his family's insurer. Sad.

 

A radio report I heard on the way home made it sound like he had a camera to document things for the divers and got carried away and went anyway.

 

I have a hard time believing someone could be THAT stupid... that, in their zeal to capture a shot, they took a header out of a plane with the proper equipment.

But then again, there are some damn stupid people. If it was an accident, and not suicide, then I think we've got a Darwin Award candidate.

 

The more digging I did...I'm now betting suicide.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=694425&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=6/7/2008

 

So how long before the video guy's film comes up on youtube? Two days? It's with police. I'm sure it won't be leaked.

 

Huh. General Schwarzenegger as an emergency contact? Nope.. no red flag there.

 

He obviously never watched Point Break.

 

I wonder what the survival rate is from parachute failure. You hear about people surviving impact on occasion — extremely fucked-up, but alive.

Maybe they get lucky and hit a tree to break their fall. Or maybe a skilled diver can position his body so he comes in at an angle and dissipates his momentum by hitting the surface and tumbling. At any rate, I'm amazed whenever a "streamer" (the nastiest cuss word in Airborne school, BTW) lives to tell the tale.

 

If he hadn't forgotten his inflatable raft and Asian sidekick, he would have survived.