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TORONTO - Some 50th birthday present.
A Barrie area man says he’s thankful to be alive and headed towards his next birthday after surviving a harrowing skydiving mishap.
Dennis McIntaggart, 50, was still shaking Monday as he thought about his 1,200-meter jump in Cookstown Saturday.
When his chute opened — as he jumped from the plane — it didn’t deploy properly, leaving him hurtling towards the ground.
“I look up ... and I’ve got line twists, so I’m kicking out the line twists as they teach you and I finally straighten the chute out so the twists are all gone and I look up and my parachute is not opening properly,” McIntaggart told the Sun. “The next procedure is to open your emergency chute, which I did, but by that time I was already at 600 feet.
“The long and short of it is I hit the ground pretty hard and survived, about a mile from the drop zone.”
McIntaggart credits his decision to pay an extra $12 to jump from 1,200 meters — instead of from 900 meters — as one that likely saved him.
McIntaggart added he wouldn’t have had enough time to react if he jumped from the lesser height.
During the time before he pulled open his emergency chute, McIntaggart said he kept thinking he was glad his daughter — who jumped with him that day — didn’t have his chute. He said he’s speaking out so others thinking of skydiving will take the risks seriously.
“The first thing the guy said to me was, ‘Oh my God, your chute was packed wrong,’” McIntaggart contended.
.........
But Skydive Toronto Inc. denies McIntaggart’s contention that someone told him his chute was packed improperly and blamed the way he jumped out of the plane.
Joe Chow, operations manager of Skydive Toronto, said he’s reviewed the jump with his instructor, the chute packing team captain and the pilot.
“As far as I can make out, one of the common causes in these sort of things is if the student doesn’t arch right on their jump,” he said. “They are taught to leave the airplane in a very stable way and this gives the parachute a lot of clean air, a lot of stability to open.”
The instructor said McIntaggart rolled over onto his right into a fetal position, Chow stated in an e-mail to the Sun later in the day.
“It was more likely that Mr. McIntaggart’s uneven launch from the aircraft interfered with his parachute’s deployment,” he wrote. “
Chow said a radio instructor on the ground told McIntaggart to pull his emergency chute handle. McIntaggart said he didn’t hear any instructions.
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Pretty lucky guy!
TORONTO - Some 50th birthday present.
A Barrie area man says he’s thankful to be alive and headed towards his next birthday after surviving a harrowing skydiving mishap.
Dennis McIntaggart, 50, was still shaking Monday as he thought about his 1,200-meter jump in Cookstown Saturday.
When his chute opened — as he jumped from the plane — it didn’t deploy properly, leaving him hurtling towards the ground.
“I look up ... and I’ve got line twists, so I’m kicking out the line twists as they teach you and I finally straighten the chute out so the twists are all gone and I look up and my parachute is not opening properly,” McIntaggart told the Sun. “The next procedure is to open your emergency chute, which I did, but by that time I was already at 600 feet.
“The long and short of it is I hit the ground pretty hard and survived, about a mile from the drop zone.”
McIntaggart credits his decision to pay an extra $12 to jump from 1,200 meters — instead of from 900 meters — as one that likely saved him.
McIntaggart added he wouldn’t have had enough time to react if he jumped from the lesser height.
During the time before he pulled open his emergency chute, McIntaggart said he kept thinking he was glad his daughter — who jumped with him that day — didn’t have his chute. He said he’s speaking out so others thinking of skydiving will take the risks seriously.
“The first thing the guy said to me was, ‘Oh my God, your chute was packed wrong,’” McIntaggart contended.
.........
But Skydive Toronto Inc. denies McIntaggart’s contention that someone told him his chute was packed improperly and blamed the way he jumped out of the plane.
Joe Chow, operations manager of Skydive Toronto, said he’s reviewed the jump with his instructor, the chute packing team captain and the pilot.
“As far as I can make out, one of the common causes in these sort of things is if the student doesn’t arch right on their jump,” he said. “They are taught to leave the airplane in a very stable way and this gives the parachute a lot of clean air, a lot of stability to open.”
The instructor said McIntaggart rolled over onto his right into a fetal position, Chow stated in an e-mail to the Sun later in the day.
“It was more likely that Mr. McIntaggart’s uneven launch from the aircraft interfered with his parachute’s deployment,” he wrote. “
Chow said a radio instructor on the ground told McIntaggart to pull his emergency chute handle. McIntaggart said he didn’t hear any instructions.
More on link
Pretty lucky guy!
