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As per witness: Alexander "Shpank" Vtyurin (~500 skydive, B.A.S.E. >100)

26.02.2012 8AM. Beliy Gorodok, Tver oblast.

Electric Lines Tower about 90m (270ft). Weak winds, solo jump, stowed. Gear was packed the day before, checked.

There was a gear-check at exit by another basejumper (his comment to follow soon)

Body found at the earth, PC is out, nearby, pins are at their places. Bridle is clear with no hooks over body or equipment. Dead as per impact.

http://www.skycentre.net/index.php?showtopic=11934

BSBD.

does anybody involved know the reasoning why such a short freefall was chosen to go stowed??? Had he jumped that object before stowed?

blue skies to him

BSBD
First fatality of 2012

Jake

Is there any Information about what kind of gear and what size pilot chute?

I'm very sorry for your loss :(

M.

this is not problem nor gear, nor pilot chute size...

problem in relation to safety only (party night before this morning jump and trouble with find BOC)

why not?

the more a jumper skydives, the more natural stowed becomes. it should take very little time to deploy stowed, without the complication of bridle management going handheld.

speculative reasons include:
- needed both hands free to climb on structure
- no good exit platform to prepare a handheld
- desire to fall past power lines in the cleanest possible configuration
- aerials
I'm sure there are plenty more.

you are free to make a different decision.

Also knowing the correct height when going lowish is important. Is it 90m/295ft or 270ft/82m. Can make a bit of difference

Quoting a witness (Vladimir "OFF" Kharlamov, a person doing Alexander's gearcheck at the exitpoint):

"Actually i'm only witness, it seems.

Ideal weather condition, solid freefall, no aerobatics, tried to reach PC about 4 times and finally hit the ground without any screams.

On the ground PC was about two feet away from the rig, most likely got out due to the impact."

sounds like he is using borrowed gear and it did not fit him well....

but hey who can say with the reports that have no real credible information as of yet!

BSBD

Sorry about the loss!

It was his own gear, which he made most jumps with.

A party night before is considered to be a contributing factor, though.

True...this are some good reasons to do a stowed one...but don't forget about the higher chance of a pc-hesitation!

Just because he couldn't find his PC doesn't automatically sound like borrowed gear to me. That's a far off assumption considering your PC can be in different spots according to how you have it set up, such as leg strap tightness, wearing chest armor, etc.

Personally, I think the "why stowed" question is an excellent one. Also, what were the temperatures like? Was it very cold out? was he wearing gloves?
IMHO, a 270' tower stowed is asking for problems...especially if you have to fall past lines or transformers before pitching. All due respect to the deceased, but based on what I've read, my opinion is that the cause of death in this incident is poor judgment.
We owe it to ourselves, our friends and families, and mostly to each other as BASE jumpers to know when to say no. We've all hucked something(s) that we knew we probably didn't have the experience for, or that we might be way too buzzed to jump right then, or any other reason we should have backed off, But we did it anyway, dependent on luck and random chance to pull us out of it alive.
Many of us have been fortunate enough to walk away unscathed. Many of our brothers and sisters have paid the ultimate price for their judgment errors.
There are very few circumstances where we *have* to jump...but in all cases, we put ourselves in these situations, and we can take ourselves out by climbing down. There's always another jump.
$0.02

IMO, 270 is too low to be going stowed. If the object wont allow you to set up HH at exit, I wouldn't be jumping it, just me though. Each jumper makes their own decisions!!

Condolences