Basejumper.com - archive

Hey guys and girls... I really dont have any info on this other than what's here, but i thought you may like to see it.

Not sure what BASE people say in this instance, so i'll stick to what i would say... BSBD

http://news.bbc.co.uk/...and/kent/4798878.stm

The Times - Monday March 13th

Base Jumper Dies

A 25 year old man died at ****** in ******** after a night time base jump from an electricity pylon. He was with two friends who immediately called for help. A police spokesman said "we do not know whether the parachute opened or not"


This is what has appeared in the papers and is vague and unhelpful to say the least. All that is known for sure is that the jumper died after a high speed impact with the ground following some undisclosed problem with equipment/deployment. That's it. Any speculation beyond that would be unwise and unnecessary.

I'm sure the full picture will become clearer in the forthcoming days.


ian

Damn... If anyone has more information, can you please PM me?


Fuck.

PM sent.

It's a sad day, and so close to home.

Thanks Tom.

Fly free man... Condolences to the family.
My sympathy goes out to the UK crew.

If anyone knows the name please PM me as i have a friend who jumps this place all the time.......

Thankfully its not who i thought it was, HOWEVER, my heart goes out to the family & friends of this person & let this person have peace for ever more!

Rest in Peace,

Is there anymore info on this?

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article351371.ece

Paul's Dad.

http://news.independent.co.uk/...in/article351371.ece

Sucks! Hang in there UK Crew!

 
My sincerest condolences to family and friends.

I hope it's not out of line to say but it was nice to read an article about a fatality that didn't run BASE through the mud. I have much respect for his father and his outlook.

BSBD

RIP Paul...
My sincerest condolences go out to the family.

I have info from the other jumper that was there.
if u want to know send me a PM

 

Good point Tree...I was watching a friend pack the other day and he was using a black bungie, with black lines, wrapped around his lines to keep the lines together. I told him you miss it once and you'll never miss it again. I used a pullup a couple of times for the same task and decided it wasn't worth the risk!

Even clamps can be forgotten. Doctors do it frequently...count your tools and then count them again...

If your going to field pack your rig, for any reason, put your PC inside the container. Then there is no way you'll accidentally jump that rig. It has happened.

yah, i had read that on the uk site last night as well. wasn't sure if it was true, but that's just bad news. i'd imagine it would be tough to leave a clamp in a pack job without noticing it, but never-the-less, i personally refuse to use anything while packing that doesn't belong on there on deployment. maybe i'm just paranoid.

 

that's my excuse. very true.

i think there's a song about that.

~E

Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean someone isn't following you.

I agree with the no tools. Learned from CR's old mojo packing videos. No clamps or tools of any kind. Other than a big weight of course

i pack with alot of tools. but i was taught to count them before i start and count them again when i'm done.

tree, you referenced a previous fatality documented on the list, could you be more specific (#). i read the list everytime we loose a fellow jumper, but i can't reconcile this incident with previous ones.

i'm sorry as hell that paul is gone but even sorrier that the specifics of this fatality were not made known to the BASE community sooner. some of us will learn from them.

#62 I believe.

Alcohol was not a factor in Tom Manship's death.

Well i guessed that. But that was originally what i inferred when i read that comment, and i wasn't alone in that.

That's the point. When someone dies in this game, sometimes it's best to say nothing until we know exactly what has happened. Initial comments can just fuel wild speculation and often though the facts eventually refute these spurious claims, the historical record is sometimes slow to catch up, and sometimes it never does

The comparisons with the death of Brian Stout here are more than obvious and look at how bitterly disputed that case is, even now, many years after his death.

No offence was intended.

ian

 

A public discussion is absolutely essential and many of us in the UK were fully aware of the necessity to get the details out into the open as soon as possible so that others could learn from them and prevent another tragedy. However, this could only be done once it was established that Paul employed this packing technique and that it was the cause of his death.

The implication that there was some seedy cover up of the facts is not appreciated, that's all.

no i did not. i referenced his last post which was days prior to the incident.

The BBC have updated their news report and named Paul,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/...and/kent/4813134.stm

Really not sure about the wording 'found dead'
Makes it sound like he was just left there for someone to find,

I was on the ground when he jumped,
and apart from the last split second when i turned away, i saw everything,
I checked him over, I made the 999 call (at 23:50 on Saturday 11th March 2006), I led the first two Policemen right to him, and the others all followed on. That's why i think the word 'found' is inapproriate.

It's taken me a long time to write anything about this on here, but i was one of the two men with Paul at the time.

Not really a BASE jumper as i have only jumped once and i walked down from this object because something didn't feel right, but be safe out there guys.

BSBD

Nigel

 

Crossed Wires Tree. PM sent.

ian

What were the weather conditions when you climbed down?

The skies were clear and full of stars, the moon was almost full, visibility was perfect, could see Canary Wharf clearly in the distance,
There was a very light calm wind, and it was absolutely freezing!

However, can't see how the weather could haver any effect on what happened.

When i said 'something didn't feel right' it was something in my mind, nothing else,

Nigel

The weather has no direct link to this particular fatality.

It is still an important detail, when trying to picture events to know what the weather was doing.

What would you call a very light, calm wind? I understand that you are a skydiver, but try and estimate it in MPH at the middle platform if you made it up there.

More importantly, what was the direction of the wind? For example, would you estimate that it was blowing towards Canary Wharf, or away from it?

Thanks.

Really bad at guessing wind speeds,
If i recall, the forecast said 6mph, and i checked that on o2 WAP just before we arrived,

As for the wind direction,
If you stand with your back to the access gate, looking up the path, it was blowing in that direction, from across the water.
Does that make sense?

Nigel