FATAL PLUNGE; PROTEST OF JUMPING BAN TURNS DEADLY.Byline: Kiley Russell Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A veteran parachutist plunged to her death off one of Yosemite's most spectacular granite monoliths Friday during a protest intended to show that such jumps can be done safely. Jan Davis Nancy Jan Davis (born November 1, 1953) is an American astronaut and the current director of the Safety and Mission Assurance directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center. Early life , 60, was the fourth jumper to leap off the top of 3,600-foot El Capitan El Cap·i·tan A peak, 2,308.5 m (7,569 ft) high, in the Sierra Nevada of central California. Its dramatic exposed monolith rises some 1,098 m (3,600 ft) above the floor of the Yosemite Valley. in the protest, organized in response to the June 9 drowning death of a man who parachuted off the same peak, only to drown in the river below while fleeing park rangers. ``She was the fourth jumper; the first three were beautiful. And then she jumped. Everybody thought it was OK, and then people said, Open up! Open up! Then . . . the whole place turned quiet,'' said Paul Sakuma, an Associated Press photographer. The first jumper took about four minutes to float down into Yosemite Valley Yo·sem·i·te Valley A valley of east-central California along the Merced River. It is surrounded by Yosemite National Park and has many waterfalls, including Yosemite Falls, with a total drop of 739.6 m (2,425 ft). . Davis fell in less than 30 seconds, landing amid the piles of rock at the base of El Capitan that have crumbled to the valley floor in recent rock slides. Her husband, photographer Tom Sanders, was shooting the jump along with a group of photographers and spectators. He slumped onto his camera in grief after watching her fall. It happened just before 2 p.m., and rangers quickly cordoned off the area. The fifth parachutist later hiked back down, along with two rangers who were on top of the mountain, said Scott Gediman, a spokesman for the park. The accident - involving a veteran jumper in ideal conditions, proves the National Park Service's ban is justified, Gediman said. But Davis handicapped herself in one important respect - she was using borrowed gear, because she didn't want her own to be confiscated con·fis·cate tr.v. con·fis·cat·ed, con·fis·cat·ing, con·fis·cates 1. To seize (private property) for the public treasury. 2. To seize by or as if by authority. See Synonyms at appropriate. adj. by the park rangers waiting to arrest her on the valley floor, witnesses said. ``If only she had used her own gear; if she had only had her own gear,'' Sanders said over and over again, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. friends who tried to console him. Sanders told them that Davis usually pulls a cord on her back; on the borrowed suit, the cord was on her leg. Also, since BASE jumpers
cinematography Art and technology of motion-picture photography. It involves the composition of a scene, lighting of the set and actors, choice of cameras, camera angle, and integration of special company Davis and her husband ran. ``This wouldn't have been her first choice on gear,'' Conkright said. ``This was her first choice on gear that you would surrender to the rangers.'' Davis, of Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. , Calif., was a very experienced jumper. In 16 years, she completed more than 3,000 sky dives and more than 70 base jumps. She also claimed to be the first woman to jump from Angel Falls Angel Falls, waterfall, Sp. Salto Ángel, 3,212 ft (979 m) high, SE Venezuela, in the Guiana Highlands. Springing from Auyán-Tepuí Mesa, it is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world. in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world, and she worked closely as a technical adviser with Sanders, who has done skydiving skydiving Sport of jumping from an airplane at a moderate altitude (e.g., 6,000 ft [1,800 m]) and executing various body maneuvers before pulling the rip cord of a parachute. Competitive events include jumping for style, landing with accuracy, and performing in teams (e.g. sequences for James Bond movies. But the extreme sport of jumping off fixed objects is so dangerous that the National Park Service has banned such stunts. Nationwide, an estimated 21 people have died during BASE jumps in the last 20 years. ``This is the sixth death since 1980 due to BASE jumping BASE jumping Sports medicine An extreme sport in which participants jump–with parachute-from 4 types of structures that constitute the acronym: Buildings, Antennas, Spans–bridges, Earth–cliffs in the park, and we've had numerous injuries. It's a poor track record,'' Gediman said. In the past, rangers have arrested anyone they catch jumping off El Capitan and seized their equipment. Between the $2,000 fine and losing thousands of dollars in equipment, getting caught can be expensive, so BASE jumpers usually do it on the sly. Both sides tried to reach an accommodation after rangers tipped by an informant staked out the June 9 jump of Frank Gambalie III. He tried to flee the rangers and drowned in the runoff-swollen Merced River. On Friday, the parachutists, accompanied by rangers at the top of the peak, agreed to land in a designated area, be arrested and forfeit their equipment, then pursue their opposition to the ban in court. ``They basically told us this was going to happen whether we worked with them or not. We felt it was in the interest of cooperation and public safety to set up a landing zone and work out an arrest procedure,'' Gediman said. Gambalie's mother, Riccarda Mescola, swore she wouldn't return to the park after her son died. But she was there Friday when Davis fell. ``I don't think Yosemite is cursed. It's a beautiful place,'' she said. ``What happened was really tragic, but it was incredibly wonderful to see people jumping off of El Cap and to see them landing in the fields and rangers giving them high fives,'' she said. ``It was just as it should be.'' CAPTION(S): 4 Photos Photo: (1--Color) Kristin Ramsey, a videographer A person involved in the production of video material. Videographers shoot the images with a video camera (analog or digital) and may perform minimal or extensive editing of the resulting footage. for the National Park Service, covers her face after witnessing parachutist Jan Davis fall to her death. (2--Color) JAN DAVIS (3) Photographer Tom Sanders, back to camera, is comforted by Riccarda Mescola after his wife, Jan Davis, fell to her death in Yosemite. Mescola's parachutist son drowned in Yosemite in June. Paul Sakuma/Associated Press (4) Parachutist Jan Davis, 60, falls to the rocks below El Capitan after her chute fails to open Friday. Darrell Wong/Fresno Bee |
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