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Post by tcrashfx on May 13, 2007 4:59:38 GMT -5
Sat May 12, 7:22 PM ET
MARION, Mont. - A plane crash killed five members of a group of skydivers Saturday in northwestern Montana, the Flathead County sheriff said. The crash happened late Saturday morning in a field about 30 miles southwest of Kalispell, in an area known as Lost Prairie, Sheriff Mike Meehan said. The Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle said the plane went down shortly after takeoff, then burned. The pilot of the Cessna 182 operated by Skydive Lost Prairie was carrying two skydiving instructors and two trainees to jumps, said Michael Morrill, a manager of the company. He said the plane took off in good weather. Names of those killed were not released immediately. All were from Montana, Morrill said. news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070512/ap_on_re_us/montana_plane_crash;_ylt=Au6pIkOotfQwuv1uaMjN.qqs0NUE
Lemme see. You're in a plane that is going down, you have a parachute on........What would you do? |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2007 11:09:15 GMT -5
> shortly after takeoff Those are the operative words. Think of the cartoons where a parachute-wearing character splats on the ground - and then the parachute pops open. If the plane stalled or spun after it had gotten only 150 feet up in the air, there wouldn't have been time for people to get out much less have their chutes open up. A Cessna 182 is a rather small, minimal jump plane. There's no room to stand up and run out the door. It's more like crawl over and drop or climb out. Jump out, and you'll hit your head on the wing. This may be the actual plane.  The airport elevation, if I have the right airport, is 3999' - harder to take off from than around here, typically 700'. Five people, tandem rigs and so on - kind of a heavy load. No telling what went wrong. Yet. Had the plane been sufficiently high, the jumpers might well have bailed out. Then the incident wouldn't have made the news. Similar plane -  Notice the 'step' welded onto the wheel. Beginning jumpers (not the tandem jumps) normally climb - not jump - out of the plane with their left foot on that step while the hands are on the wing strut. Extending the right (starboard) leg puts them in essentially a spread-eagle position while they're still holding onto the plane. When the jumpmaster says, "GO", they simply let go of the plane, taking their left foot off the step. Head up, and they're pretty stable. YAHOOOOO!!!! Really, really flying! Can't be beat. This is the place to go. Better (much better) equipment and wonderful people. Click on the 'aircraft' link on that site to get an idea. Then poke around - and go for it! NOTTA PARTY!!!! |
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