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TheChive.com
A woman nearly falls out of a parachute harness in this undated video over Lodi, Calif.
A video of an 80-year-old woman who nearly falls out of her parachute harness after being pushed to jump has surfaced online, but the owner of the Northern California business where it was filmed said he had no details about what happened.
Published by TheChive.com, the video was taken by The Parachute Center in Lodi, Calif., as part of its services for customers. It shows a woman only identified as Laverne as saying she had turned 80 and decided to celebrate by jumping tandem with an instructor.
The Daily Mail in London dissected the video into still images that show the woman in various stages of distress.
It also quoted a British expert as saying the woman could have easily fallen out of the harness.
"She was very close to slipping out," said Tony Butler, technical officer at the British Parachute Association. "You can see from the video the instructor was trying to get to the harness and cling on to it."
"At the start of the clip she is reluctant to jump and they were in a bad position with her holding onto the door frame as they left the plane," he told the Daily Mail. "Things like this have happened in the United States before and there have been two fatalities."
Msnbc.com contacted the Parachute Center and a man who identified himself as Bill Dause, the owner, said the video was "real old, well over a year ago" and that he had no further information about the incident.
TheChive.com told msnbc.com that it was "working on getting more info" about the video's origins.
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"Knees in the breeze and the blast in your ass" .
I've done 5 static line drops and two 10,000' tandems. What you aren't prepared for is the decelleration shock going from 120 mph to zero in blink of an eye when chute opens. If Granny had weak bones it would be crunch time. What amazed me is the video was still produced. Guess Granny wanted a record of her drop. GOOD FOR HER. Bet she's the last 80 year old that instructor takes up. I'd love to drop from a twin. Quite roomy compared to the singles I've departed from.
PS...you are cinched in so tight I can't imagine how she came loose except for poor equipment and/or installation
What I would suggest to "adventurers" undertaking this quest is that 10,000 feet is 2 miles up and twin's usually drop from 12,500. This is not to be taken lightly. It is quite a physical event. I think it is less "physical" if you yourself were the only occupant. When you tandem, the physical exertion in fact multiplies on the tandee because you are harnessed to the jump instructor. Thus he "absorbs" the impact of chute opening throughout his entire body whereas you are attached to him and take a bigger hit. Two lads I jumped with (including my son) had significant bruises under their armpits and across their pec's because of (a) the tightness of the cinch and (b) the opening jolt. For adventurers I would encourage you try it but this is not for the faint of heart and is a physical undertaking.
I bet she filled her depends right to the brim. Heck, even I would have left a brown streak across the sky after slipping out of the harness. I am actually surprised she didn't have a coronary. Good job grandma! I bet you don't do that again. :-P
The lady looks great for 80, but this must have caused a few extra grey hairs!
Before departure from the plane it looks like her harness was not properly cinched up. If not this would be a failure of the instructor to ensure the equipment was properly installed. OOPS!! Have a nice trip. See ya again next fall!!
This "instructor" is done. Hopefully. This ought to be a criminal violation, forcing a jumper out of the plane.
Wow, I've jumped in the military and as a civilian...damn, she was almost out of that harness. God bless her for not having a coronary just because of the incident. The instructor should have found out if she was simply afraid or in distress...obviously it was the latter.
Wow, I've jumped in the military and as a civilian...damn, she was almost out of that harness. God bless her for not having a coronary just because of the incident. The instructor should have found out if she was simply afraid or in distress...obviously it was the latter.
I come from a military family . I am the only one of 3 boys that has not ever jumped out of a perfectly good plane. Yet they both think i am crazy because i love the ocean. I did para-sail though . I like the ideal of the chute being open before i leave my stable transportation.
I am a skydiving instructor, coach, camerman and first jump dispatcher. I can tell you that most of the people that dont want to go out that door once it is open want you to force them a little bit. Once back on the ground they are all thank you for making it happen, this lady would have been the same if not for the shabby job of tightening her harness.
Hopefully she had some depends on.. The instructor should have made absolutely sure her harness was secure. I'd say that he is no doubt at fault. Also interesting how he forced her out of the plane. I would assume this happens on occasion and that the timing of the jump is a big deal. On the flip side = Major props for holding on to her.. I'd say that he saved her life.
wow!!!!! thats terrifying!
If I make it to 80, I'll fore go any activities that will endanger my seeing 81.
Who does she think she is...H.W. Bush?! lol
As a licensed Skydiver I see many things at fault here. Se should have already had her goggles on and be ready before the others jumped. You can also see the harness was adjusted really badly before she even left the plane.
The old bag made it extremely hard for the tandem pilot exiting the plane resulting in the mid air rolls and flips, delaying him getting the drone chute out to steady their descent.
Once they are falling there isn't much they can do.
watching it again, the harness was way to loose and they were passing back over the drop zone after the first jump.
The tandem master was trying his best to correct the situation once mid air.
I'm not a sky diver, but I too had concerns you pointed out. She did not seem prepared before the jump, and when she froze, she should have been given the option not to go - she put herself and the instructor at risk by the messy exit and subsequent spinning.
http://www.smilehighparasail.com/
UnProfessional to say the least. Makes me want to say ...why fly?
Drogue not drone Craig. Normally with amateurs there is a degree of tumbling before instructor manages to right the ship to deploy the drogue but in this case I suspect the harness was not cinched tightly enough for fear of causing the old lady distress hence the attempt should NEVER have been made. Only a loose and/or defective harness could cause this to happen.
blackbird you dont know what your talking about at all, you should shut up so everyone else does not know that too.
Do share your "knowledge" on this matter Sauve.
already did, and it is not usual for tumbling when leaving the plane with a tandem passenger.
I agree. Quote from my earlier post. We appear to be in agreement thus what is it which constitutes what I don't know what I'm talking about? Granted you have much more experience than I do and have likely seen a number of incidents hopefully non fatal (which usually happens to beginners who get into spins and entangled with equipment). But I do not see where any of my posting is flagrantly incorrect or is it just that you dislike an "amateur" commenting on what you consider to be "your sport" :-)
PS...If you watched the Youtube video of "Kat", she made an excellent departure (no tumbling) whereas her boyfriend appeared to do a instructor inspired sideroll.
I have a question for you Sauve. As a professional skydiving instructor, the aparatus that this 80 year old lady was using looked far less robust than the gear than Chrispy & Kat used and which I used also. The straps are much wider and the entire arrangement looks and feels secure. The gear on the 80 year old lady looked thin and flimsy.
My question is for a lady (or man) her age and taking weight into account....does the type of equipment vary? Kat didn't look much heavier than the 80 year old so I fail to see why there was a variance in harness. Can you shed some light on this?
different manufactures different equipment. Each manufacturer designed their own equipment and it goes to the testing for the gov approval. Just like cars they need to meet certain bars to pass.
She has to go and take care of her grandkids stead of by jumping out of airplane, when you get old you get old and all of us are going to
One less baby boomer draining the coffers, oh wait, she held on. Good thing those Depends worked.
Uh, she was 80 years old. Hardly a Baby Boomer. Perrhaps you should take some remedial math...
Well, I'm sure she hangs out with those young baby boomers.
Bi Polar - you missed taking your meds this morning. If you're really someone with a PhD, you didn't learn much. Try learning to have some respect for the elderly, for if you are lucky, you will be elderly one day yourself!
Obviously, she didn't want to go - hope he was fired!
And yet another good reason to keep Both feet on the ground.
They shouldn't have pushed her from the plain. Most places give you three chances and then you're back in your seat. However, had she gone into the possition the instructor had thought her, she's never have slipped from the harnest. It's the fault of both parties, just glad she's okay. I've jumped and it's a wonderful experance!
I’ve jumped as civilian and in the military. It looks like the tandem master didn’t attach the hooks on her harness near the waist to his harness. This tandem master should be fired and not allowed to do tandems anymore. That grandma is so lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looking at it 2nd time the harnes was attatched at the hips but way to loose should have never happened.
I'd have punched that instructor. A customer should NEVER be FORCED to jump from the plane. And obviously the harness wasn't properly fastened. I'm so glad the woman survived the jump and hope her instructor was fired.
I’ve jumped as a civilian and in the military. It looks like the jump master didn’t attach the hooks on her harness near the waist to his harness. This tandem master should be fired and not allowed to do tandems anymore. That grandma is so lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the parachute center in Lodi California. My girlfriend took me last June for my 40th birthday. I gotta tell ya, ground school consisted of a 7 minute safety video from the 1970's. No hands on training. Before we knew it, we were in the plane at 13000 feet! My harness was loose until the last possible moment, my instructor was speaking broken English, we flipped out of the plane, my glasses were barely on, he let me control the chute. CRAZY PLACE! Would I go there again? Absolutely!
To find my video on Utube: 'Chrispy and Kat go skydiving'
Kat did a great "Arch". Looks like you got the mad Russian who intentionally took you into a "roll". Those crazy mofo Russians :-) Good for you guys!!! Seemed like a well run outfit. In the 70's I did static line drops from 2,800 feet at "Jerry's jump school in Vancouver BC. THAT was a s**t outfit. lousy garage uniforms....WW2 parachutes, ill fitting boots and old orange motorcysle helmets. I climbed out on a wingstrut in the prop wash and had accepted an inevitable death! There was a guy on the ground with a big arrow directing us to a gravel target zone. The most important thing those days was landing because with a round chute you came straight down. You cannot anticipate the moment of impact and thus most of ground school was on "hit and roll" (thus absorbing the impact). Hard to describe but its not like jumping off a small ledge. You think you are going to hit, then don't, then you hit all in a nano second. One guy in our "squadron" fractured his back because he did not flex on impact. Things have improved considerably.
Good think the old lady's shirt didn't come all the way up. Imagine those old titties flappin in the wind!
I could see her shirt flapping in the wind. What woman puts a bra on over her shirt?
Graig22 are you licensed? not very nice calling an adventure and brave woman and old bag, you have a grandmother?
Skydiving has been on my "must do in life" list...until now!
I think the second half of this clip was added in to make it look like they both actually fell out.
It is really manly to wrestle with and force out an 80 year old woman!
WTF, it's obvious she didn't want to go after she got up there why did they force her? It's a wonder she didn't die or did she? This was a sick video; I hope her family gets written out of her will or better her life. Some one needs to spend a little time in jail for elderly abuse.