An eye witness report by one of Gus' friends who was there on the load at that time.
In reply to:
An eye-witness account
I was the only jumper who witnessed Gus' last jump from exit to impact so i thought I'd tell all to clear up and questions you have about the incident,
We all met in the morning at 6am like we all had been that week, Gus had only arrived a couple of days earlier, we were all off to an exit point approx an hour out of the Valley that most of us hadn't jumped before, during the drive Gus revealed to me that this would be his third attempt at the this jump, winds thwarting his previous attempts.
At the exit point we all looked over, deciding on our landing areas etc, winds were gonna be no problem thankfully this morning so we all went ahead and kitted up. I do recall thinking at the time that the powerlines were at a slightly awkward distance for a wingsuit, but had no desire to point out this fact as Gus being an experienced wingsuit pilot and what with me having none and i just had confidence that Gus would make it over them no problem as this was his plan, so who was it for me to offer advice or even make my opinion heard.
We decided on an exit plan, all solos and i went last as i wanted to film everyone's exit, the first 4 jumps went fine, all 4-5 secs delays and made it back to the planned landing areas, then Gus launched himself off, from my perspective it looked like a great flight, although i was watching it on my LCD screen, not with my eye, i can't say how long he was in flight for, but as he starting getting nearer to the powerlines i did think to myself damn he's low, then i saw him deploy just he had made it over the lines, from my viewpoint his canopy came out behind the powerlines, but no sooner had his canopy deployed it collapsed on the ground, my cam was fully zoomed in at this point as it was hard to tell if there was movement from his white wingsuit, i turned the cam off and was squinting to see if there was any movement, there wasn't, and i knew he was at least hurt bad.
As you can imagine, i didn't wanna jump, but not having the car keys i was stuck at the top, the others all landed far away from Gus, and i decided that i could be first on scene if i just jumped now, i don't even remember the jump, it was just a means to get down quick, i landed next to Gus, but Rich had made it before me as its a long canopy flight.
Looking back on the jump, it would seem to me that Gus obviously realised in the last few seconds of his flight that he wasn't gonna make it over the powerlines, but rather than pulling and deploying into the lines, he tried to make it over them eye witness' on the ground said his flight was very 'flat' compared to usual body position, which sez to me he was trying his best to clear the lines, PC was thrown out the same height as the lines, approx 120-150ft, but as we all know, that simply isn't enough...
The paramedics were on scene within 15 mins, but there was nothing they could do.
I hope you all take comfort in the fact that it was instant, Gus did not suffer and he did die doing something he loved, in a place he loved.
