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Tag: skydive

  • Shirley Jones Wants To Skydive For Her 80th Birthday

    Happy Birthday Shirley Jones!

    One of America’s favorite matriarchs has been trending on the internet for the past couple of days. No, there aren’t any plans for a Partridge Family reunion tour. Instead, the 80-year-old grandmother of 12 wants to follow in the footsteps of former President George Bush.

    The Academy Award winning actress has big plans for her milestone 80th birthday celebration, and it’s not just an attempt to blow out all 80 candles.

    Jones wants to skydive. She got the idea after seeing President Bush take the plunge for his 85th birthday. “That’s something I wanted to do all my life.” She added, “When I saw him do it I thought, `Wow, if he can do this, I can.”

    Jones said that she wanted to skydive today which is the actual day she turns 80. No word yet on whether she took the plunge or not. If she does, she will not be jumping out of the plane alone. All first time skydivers jump in tandem with a trained professional.

    What does her family think of Jones’ desire for danger? She said her son, Shaun Cassidy, didn’t understand and wondered why someone her age would want to do so something so dangerous. And although the former Broadway veteran can see his point, she’s not letting age or her arthritis get in the way of scratching off an item on her to-do list.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • World Trade Center BASE Jumpers Arrested

    World Trade Center BASE Jumpers Arrested

    According to ABC News, four men who are accused in the BASE jumping incident at One World Trade Center Freedom Tower back in September of last year have turned themselves in to police.

    Three of the men, 27-year-old Marko Markovich, 33-year-old Andrew Rossig, and 32-year-old James Brady were accused of the jump itself. Another, 29-year-old Kyle Hartwell, was accused of acting as lookout on the street below.

    The four face criminal charges in the stunt, including third-degree burglary, which is a felony, and reckless endangerment and jumping from a structure, which are misdemeanors.

    We brought you a story recently about a teenager who had broken in to the One World Trade Center construction area, made his way through a hole in the fence, up an elevator accompanied by a union elevator operator, past a sleeping guard, and took pictures from the rooftop and spire of the building.

    In this case, the jumpers filmed the jump, but did not release anything to YouTube.

    “Our intent was never for this to go public,” Rossig said. “We never posted the video footage. People didn’t know about it. We kept things quiet. As far as we were concerned, no one ever needed to know.”

    In fact, the men were surprised that anyone came looking for them at all.

    “It’s six months after the fact,” Rossig said. “We were a little bit shocked that they spent that much time and energy continuing to pursue something that they knew was not a terroristic act.”

    As for why they did it, he said, “A peaceful, quiet moment looking at the world from a different place, a place that most people don’t ever get to see.”

    “It was illegal, you know, we never meant to upset anybody or anything like that,” Brady said. “It was a very simple thing. A positive, simple thing.”

    But police see things differently. NYPD Commissioner William Bratton indicated that they pursued these arrests for six months in order to send a message to other would-be daredevils.

    “These men violated the law and placed themselves, as well as others, in danger,” Bratton said. “These arrests should send a message to anyone thinking about misusing a landmark this way. They will be tracked down and they will face serious charges. Being a thrill-seeker does not give immunity from the law.”

    Especially after the parkour stunt a few days back, perhaps police saw a need to let folks know that they will pursue prosecution. Otherwise, One World Trade Canter could become a target of a new kind – one for thrill seekers – and an embarrassing situation for the people who are assigned to protect this Trade Center tower from threats – foreign or domestic.

    Watch the jump, in its entirety. Go full screen with it, since it is HD. It is a real thrill all the way through.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz7sxt9xeJE

    Image via YouTube

  • Sky Diving Accident Caught on Camera (video)

    A first time jumper and her instructor were involved in a freak skydiving accident when an updraft shot them 40 feet in the air as they approached landing.

    The unidentified woman in Collegeville, PA and her instructor at Keystone Skydive Center, Chad Galbraith, were doing a routine tandem skydive, and everything went smoothly. Until they were about thirty feet off the ground, when a sudden updraft shot them in the air another 40 feet. They landed hard on the ground and the parachute continued to drag them down the runway. Luckily, Galbraith was able to cut them free before any additional damage could be done.

    The incident left them both badly injured. Galbraith suffered a serious lower back injury requiring two surgeries, and the unidentified woman sustained cracked ribs and a collapsed lung. Both are expected to make a full recovery.

    “All of a sudden, the updraft stopped and the wind came from the side. It folded the parachute underneath and put the parachute into a spin,” said Marc Nadeau, a skydive worker who witnessed the accident. “They landed hard on their side into the grass and were dragged into the runway. At that time the instructor was able to jettison — cut away — the main parachute to keep themselves from being dragged any further.”

    The lead image is stock. The video is real.
    [source: Huff Post]

  • Man Skydives From 13 Miles Up

    Man Skydives From 13 Miles Up

    Felix Baumgartner recently made a space jump from 13.6 miles up, on his quest to break the world record. Here is a shot of the insanity:

    (image)

    Baumgartner, 42, sponsored by Red Bull, wore a pressurized suit and rode up to his launch point in a capsule called Stratos, on the back of a 100-foot-wide helium balloon. The balloon carried him to 71,581 feet, to where he jumped, and was in a free fall for 3 minutes and 43 seconds, reaching a speed of 364.4 miles per hour. Planes usually fly at about 8-9 miles high, so Baumgartner was up there.

    Still, Baumgartner seeks to jump from an altitude of 23 miles (120,000 feet or 37 kilometers), which is close to the edge of the stratosphere. From that height, he would fall for about 5 and a half minutes, and break the sound barrier. After falling at Mach 1 for a while, he would pull his chute at about a mile up, and hit the ground roughly ten minutes later.

    The 23 mile jump is set for sometime this summer, and would break the record set my U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger on August 16, 1960. Kittinger jumped from a ballon called the Excelsior III, at 19.47 miles up, or 102,800 feet. Here is a picture of Kittinger’s feat:

    (image)

    The captain was technically more of a purist than Baumgartner, lacking the same technology in 1960, kind of like Mt. Everest climbers of old who traversed the summit without oxygen tanks. Still, Baumgartner is insane, and joins the ranks of other dudes in capsules going all over the place.