Ontario man survives harrowing skydiving mishap

[SaskatooNewb 0]

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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.

While he managed to make it to his 50th birthday party that night, McIntaggart said he was still having rib and neck pain Monday.

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.

“When Dennis didn’t do so he told Dennis to steer his parachute and land with it, because you get to a point where it’s a little close to the ground and you just simply have him land with it and that could have been done, too,” Chow said. “At that point Dennis chose to pull his emergency handle, a little bit late but he still did it right and he came down with his emergency parachute.”

The incident will be referred to the Canadian Sport Parachuting Association which will determine whether further investigation is warranted.

I haven't posted here in two years but this article really pisses me off and wanted to talk about it. (plus i just completed my AFF level 1 and got intersted in the sport again after my first jump 2 years ago).

Okay, so anyways, this guy pulls his chute, notices a line twist under a malfunctioned canopy and tries to kick it out?? Okay, maybe he was so nervous he failed to do a canopy check and only looked at his lines, whatever...BUT the way he talks about it to the media he doesn't take ANY responsibility. Instead he points the finger to everyone else so people just feel sorry for him.

I even sent him a message on facebook to tell him to man up and take some responsibilty. "After i kicked out the line twist i saw that my parachute wasnt opening properly". WOW. I can't get over that. Maybe i'm overreacting.

[airtwardo 7]

Andy Kaufman skydives?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[PhreeZone 20]

This has already been talked about on here, search out his name for other threads about it.

Also, evaluate top to bottom, solve bottom to top.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

In Incidents http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3841904;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

Generally agreed that the news story was a bit exaggerated.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[Glitch 0]

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Generally agreed that the news story was a bit exaggerated.

...a bit exaggerated? That's like saying Twardo is a young man.

Randomly f'n thingies up since before I was born...

[MotherGoose 0]

The good news is, after 4 newspaper spots, 3 local television appearances and 2 radio interviews . . . he has finally gone away. We think he was fishing around for a lawyer to take his case pro bono but in one of his radio interviews, he was mocked pretty good by the hosts and asked if there were any waivers signed. He replied, "well yah, like seven of them". This didn't help his case. His 15 days of fame are over, and now he's the top nominee for the 2010 Lutz Award :
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/The-Lutz-Award/105432892831417?ref=ts

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[377 22]

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We think he was fishing around for a lawyer to take his case pro bono

what "case"?

He walked away from a malfunction. No injuries, no lost wages.

I'm pleased no law sharks rose to his bait.

Does anyone know what was wrong with the canopy after he untwisted the lines?

Glad he is OK even if he is a drama king.

377

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[MotherGoose 0]

The "case" that he may have thought he had for "injuring" his neck on a hard landing under a reserve (downwind) without a proper PLF. He was on TV with a neck brace, talking about how his doctor was supposed to get back to him about injured neck vertebrae. Funny thing is, we tracked him on FB (dumbass), and found photos of him the night of the incident, partying and dancing for his 50th birthday. That kinda kills any injury case if you ask me.

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[shropshire 0]

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Glad he is OK even if he is a drama king.

Haaa.... he would have fitted right in here then

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[rwieder 0]

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This didn't help his case. His 15 days of fame are over, and now he's the top nominee for the 2010 Lutz Award

You mean the top nominee for the 2010 Darwin Award Candidate?

-Richard-
"You're Holding The Rope And I'm Taking The Fall"

[phoenixlpr 0]

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This didn't help his case. His 15 days of fame are over, and now he's the top nominee for the 2010 Lutz Award

You mean the top nominee for the 2010 Darwin Award Candidate?

Notice that he is alive.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

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This didn't help his case. His 15 days of fame are over, and now he's the top nominee for the 2010 Lutz Award

You mean the top nominee for the 2010 Darwin Award Candidate?

Notice that he is alive.

He could still win an "Honorable Mention"

But I don't think he really qualifies.

A "Lutz" would be far more appropriate. Not for his mistakes, which are understandable. First jump, lineover, late cutaway.
For a first time static-line, the slow reaction to the overwhelming circumstances are reasonable. If S/L wasn't so reliable, we would have a lot more of these IMO.

What's not appropriate (and so Lutz-like) is his blaming everyone but himself for it and his claims of how horrible the mal was.

Listen to him on the radio link (you have to go back to April 15 on the radio website) and you will hear him claiming to be "plummeting at 120mph" and "being flung outward as the canopy spun" when he was really in a slow turn due to a lineover and took 2 minutes to find and pull his cutaway handle.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[MotherGoose 0]

That's funny that you brought up that radio interview. That was me that phoned in to set this guy straight. I promised my wife I would remain calm and rationally explain to him what he did wrong but the things this guy started spouting off about just pissed me right off and I couldn't help myself. The radio show was of no help either, they are one of those "shock jock" type shows that are always trying to be funny. All they were looking for was ways to make fun of this guy and once the conversation got too serious, they hung up on us both.

He's definitely in the running for a Lutz because of his media relations skills and his lack of accountability.

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[SaskatooNewb 0]

I sent him a message on Facebook, and he responded with this

"Feel free to call me and I would be glad to chat to you about it.. ***-***-****"



Would i be violating any policies on this site if i were to post that phone number

[MotherGoose 0]

To be honest, you've got to let this one go. He's had his moment, now he is quiet. There is no need to start the snowball down the hill again.

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[JohnRich 4]

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I sent him a message on Facebook, and he responded with this
"Feel free to call me and I would be glad to chat to you about it.. ***-***-****"
Would i be violating any policies on this site if i were to post that phone number

You would be violating his privacy, unless he gave you express permission to share his phone number with others.

[SaskatooNewb 0]

Okay I thought it might be interesting to phone him and ask him some questions, but I´m not as experienced as you guys to really know the right questions. For this reason I was prepared to hand it off to someone else.

Anyways i´ll drop it and i appologize for making a 2nd thread.

Does anybody have a link to some pictures or video of the slow spin to 600ft? It must be out there somewhere.

[wayneflorida 0]

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Andy Kaufman skydives?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...

[zoobrothertom 5]

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Andy Kaufman skydives?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...

Goes down hard and wasn't smart enough to stay down for the count!

____________________________________
I'm back in the USA!!

[MotherGoose 0]

Contrary to the belief of the gentleman in question, there was never any ground or air video of the incident. The dropzone only has access to one single photo of the malfunction, taken by a spectator (attached) which CLEARLY indicates a problem with the main that should have been identified very early, not below 1000 ft.. Also, this photo proves once and for all that he could NOT have been plummeting towards the earth at 120mph as he continuously demanded in the media.

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[jimmytavino 16]

thanks for the picture...
if you're gonna have a Mal.... that looks like a good "type"... to have...

Just Do Your EPs....!!!!!

what the heck is the story here???

the fellow needs to STAY on the ground...
AND accept responsibility for his own lack of correct action...
jt

[jayrech 0]

There was one major thing with the canopy after the line twists, He was still under it :) Kicking out of line twists for 3500 ft doesnt sound like much fun!!

D.S 174.2

Be careful what you say. Some one might take it the right way.

[dorbie 0]

Seems like a great article with the people who know what they're talking about getting the last word in.

The student is a bit confused which is to be expected. He pulled his reserve and saved himself from a mal, something more experienced jumpers have failed to do at times, and now he has a great story that he's itching to tell.

Nothing to see here.

IMHO if skydiving wasn't perceived as dangerous FEWER people would do it on their 50th birthday.