Parachuting pioneer dies in first jump for decades

[mknutson]

Times Online October 23, 2006


An emergency rescue boat speeds to aid Base jumper Brian Lee Schubert after his fatal fall in West Virginia (Lew Whitener/AP)
Parachuting pioneer dies in first jump for decades

By Sam Knight and agencies


NI_MPU('middle');
A pioneer of Base jumping, where parachutists leap from fixed objects rather than aircraft, has died making what is thought to have been his first parachute jump in decades.

Brian Lee Schubert, who lived most of his life as a quiet, unremarkable policeman in Pomona, California, wrote his name into the short, dangerous history of Base jumping in 1966, when as 26-year-old truck driver he leapt with a friend from El Capitan, a 3,000ft (900m) tall rock in California’s Yosemite National Park.

In the first known Base jump (Base stands for "Buildings, Antennae, Spans and Earth"), Schubert, an experienced Army parachutist, was swept back against the rockface and broke a leg and a foot. His partner, Mike Pelkey, was also buffetted against the rock, breaking his ankle.

But both survived, and became shadowy legends in a sport that found a wider audience and celebrity a full 20 years later as parachute technology improved the chances of survival from short falls.

Carl Boenish, the man credited with bringing Base jumping to a mass audience, came up with the name and started awarding numbers to parachutists who had jumped from all four starting positions in 1981. He was killed jumping off a cliff in Norway in 1984.

Schubert, aged 66, died on Saturday at the annual Bridge Day festival in West Virginia, when hundreds of Base jumpers from around the world gather to throw themselves off the New River Gorge Bridge and fall the 876ft (263m) to the water below.

More than 140,000 people, and thousands more watching on television, saw Schubert mount the bridge to a rapturous reception. Although their names are widely known in the sport, Schubert and Pelkey were rarely seen at Base jumping events and The Los Angeles Times reported today that Schubert had not made a jump for decades.

Lew Whitener, a photographer covering the jump for a local newspaper, said Schubert dropped from the bridge but did not open his parachute until he was 25ft above the water. He died on impact, according to emergency personnel at the scene.

Mr Whitener said the crowd gave a "collective gasp" as Schubert failed to open his chute: "It was everybody kind of held their breath then an eerie silence afterward. Everybody kind of looked at each other and said ’Wow.'".

Mr Pelkey, who was standing behind Schubert as he jumped and preparing to follow him over the edge, told The Los Angeles Times: "Why Brian didn't open is such a total unknown," adding that the crowd yelled "Throw! Throw!" urging him to deploy his pilot chute, the smaller parachute that pulls the main sail open.

The newspaper reported today that conditions for the jump were fine -- when Schubert's body was removed, the festival continued unabated -- but that the retired policeman had not done any jumps for years.

Jean Boenish, the wife of Carl Boenish, and a former safety director at the event, said Schubert had done just one day of practice: "I would not have let this man jump... I told him I didn't think he was ready. He would have nothing to do with me after that."

Schubert was the first participant to die at the Bridge Day festival since 1987. According to Nick Di Giovanni, a Base jumper who has written a history of the sport, more than 100 people have died in jumps since 1981.

[mknutson]

Reposted on behalf of base428:

Mick,

It's very sad that you've chosen to post a poll regarding the BD fatality. Jean Boenish personally trained Brian in the days prior to BD, yet she now chooses to redirect her overwhelming guilt towards the organizers. In the days prior to BD, Brian was also trained by two additional well-known experts in our sport. The organizers went above and beyond the call of duty to help Brian before the event. In total, three very experienced jumpers provided training to Brian and no one expressed concern for his safety or skills prior to the jump.

If Jean Boenish had doubts about Brian's ability to make a safe jump, why did she not inform the organizers? No one questioned Mike Pelkey's jump last year under similar circumstances, and no one questioned Brian's capabilities this year.

Brian had 141 skydives and he met jump requirements. The organizers revoked the jumping privileges of a jumper two days prior to the event that was far less experienced than Brian.

Everyone should withhold their judgment until the investigation is complete.

My sincere condolences to Brian's family.

[mknutson]

Reposted on behalf of mac:

Forgive me if I am wrong, but were these not many many years ago? Is currency not an issue for the BD requirements?

I also agree, that a poll like this maybe not the best question to poll. A more generic poll about BD requirements would be more constructive IMHO.

[Mac]

Sorry, I accidently deleted this post.... Mick reposted....

[ZegeunerLeben]

>>I disagree with the statement "I would not have let this man jump..."
The instant your feet leave the object no one is responsible for what happens to you except you.

[Mac]

If you are only responsible for yourself, why are there rules for entry to BD? Surely everyone should have the freedom and are responsible for their own choices in taking part? Is that not what BASE is about? Freedom and choice? or is Bridge Day slightly different to "normal" BASE? I am very confused about this....

[Sash]

Times Online October 23, 2006


An emergency rescue boat speeds to aid Base jumper Brian Lee Schubert after his fatal fall in West Virginia (Lew Whitener/AP)
Parachuting pioneer dies in first jump for decades

By Sam Knight and agencies


NI_MPU('middle');
A pioneer of Base jumping, where parachutists leap from fixed objects rather than aircraft, has died making what is thought to have been his first parachute jump in decades.

Brian Lee Schubert, who lived most of his life as a quiet, unremarkable policeman in Pomona, California, wrote his name into the short, dangerous history of Base jumping in 1966, when as 26-year-old truck driver he leapt with a friend from El Capitan, a 3,000ft (900m) tall rock in California’s Yosemite National Park.

In the first known Base jump (Base stands for "Buildings, Antennae, Spans and Earth"), Schubert, an experienced Army parachutist, was swept back against the rockface and broke a leg and a foot. His partner, Mike Pelkey, was also buffetted against the rock, breaking his ankle.

But both survived, and became shadowy legends in a sport that found a wider audience and celebrity a full 20 years later as parachute technology improved the chances of survival from short falls.

Carl Boenish, the man credited with bringing Base jumping to a mass audience, came up with the name and started awarding numbers to parachutists who had jumped from all four starting positions in 1981. He was killed jumping off a cliff in Norway in 1984.

Schubert, aged 66, died on Saturday at the annual Bridge Day festival in West Virginia, when hundreds of Base jumpers from around the world gather to throw themselves off the New River Gorge Bridge and fall the 876ft (263m) to the water below.

More than 140,000 people, and thousands more watching on television, saw Schubert mount the bridge to a rapturous reception. Although their names are widely known in the sport, Schubert and Pelkey were rarely seen at Base jumping events and The Los Angeles Times reported today that Schubert had not made a jump for decades.

Lew Whitener, a photographer covering the jump for a local newspaper, said Schubert dropped from the bridge but did not open his parachute until he was 25ft above the water. He died on impact, according to emergency personnel at the scene.

Mr Whitener said the crowd gave a "collective gasp" as Schubert failed to open his chute: "It was everybody kind of held their breath then an eerie silence afterward. Everybody kind of looked at each other and said ’Wow.'".

Mr Pelkey, who was standing behind Schubert as he jumped and preparing to follow him over the edge, told The Los Angeles Times: "Why Brian didn't open is such a total unknown," adding that the crowd yelled "Throw! Throw!" urging him to deploy his pilot chute, the smaller parachute that pulls the main sail open.

The newspaper reported today that conditions for the jump were fine -- when Schubert's body was removed, the festival continued unabated -- but that the retired policeman had not done any jumps for years.

Jean Boenish, the wife of Carl Boenish, and a former safety director at the event, said Schubert had done just one day of practice: "I would not have let this man jump... I told him I didn't think he was ready. He would have nothing to do with me after that."

Schubert was the first participant to die at the Bridge Day festival since 1987. According to Nick Di Giovanni, a Base jumper who has written a history of the sport, more than 100 people have died in jumps since 1981.

I´m a little shocked about the sad news loosing a pioneer. A couple months ago Eric Jones a 65 year old jumped Angel Falls no problem. The bridge is a much easier object to jump off and Brian Lee Schubert was a pioneer. I can only say the sport should never be underestimated. It is and will be the most dangerous sport in the world. Brian Lee Schubert has transformed now from a living legend to a historical one and will now live forever in our hearts, minds and the history books. My regards to his family. Rest in peace Brian Lee Schubert you are one of my idols and a true hero.

[NickD]

>>I´m a little shocked about the sad news loosing a pioneer<<

Poor Mick, he keeps trying to kickstart this forum that long ago ran out of gas.

Okay though - here's some fuel . . .

In reality it's probably a good thing to re-visit these events once everyone has had a chance to recover and cool down.

First off nobody, least of all Brian himself (more on that later), was at total fault here.

Jean Boenish didn't set out to kill Brian, nor did Johnny, Jason, or anyone else. But we all, including me, had a share in the blame.

Jason will always look at what happened in a certain way. As the Bridge Day Organizer he's coming from a position of protecting the event itself at all costs, and that's completely understandable, even laudable.

Johnny, I imagine, gave Brian the same basic instruction that all first timers at BD get, and due to Brian's age and state of currency probably a bit more.

Jean's part in all this may be the most troubling. If anyone might be accused of having ulterior motives it's her. But even this is understandable if you know her well enough. Although the bridge was first jumped by some local jumpers the "event" that became the BD we know today was first started by her husband Carl Boenish. And after Carl's death she was the organizer of the event for many years. And she, rightly or wrongly, still feels a strong "ownership" of the event.

"Jean can't relate well with current practices in BASE jumping," is what a lot of people say nowadays. But they are wrong. She never related to whatever the current state of the sport was. Jean was always on some other level than the rest of us. If men are from Mars, and woman from Venus, than Jean was from Pluto. She's always had the ability to turn the simplest premise into something that would have your eyes glazing over in just a few minutes.

I like Jean, I always have, but when it comes to BASE she's the epitome of the batty old aunt you keep chained up down in the basement. On the other hand I wish she could just accept her natural position of the Queen Mum of BASE with dignity and grace. I wish we could have her at BD every year signing log books and meeting younger jumpers without Jason (with some cause) feeling like a coup or take over plot was afoot. Jean is the last living link we have to Carl Boenish, a legacy that's been both a boon and a bane to her. And I (we) really don't have the right to expect her to live up to whatever expectations we have. In reality since Carl died just six years after inventing the sport he called BASE, Jean has done more and has been more influential, in a nuts and bolts sort of way, than Carl ever was himself.

The problem is while her ideas are the same in basic, and I still hear Carl's words and ideas coming from her mouth, it's like the record is playing on the wrong speed. She never had the people skills that Carl had. She never had the ability to allow people to listen, learn, and accept the way that Carl did. Anyone who spoke to Carl, just for a few minutes, immediately liked him, while Jean just doesn't bring the warmth, let alone the fuzzies.

In life the truest (or at least most provable to me) force in our lives is simple timing. Timing is everything. I don't mean to say if Brian had just let go of that pilot chute a couple seconds sooner the future would have changed. What I mean is if I go out this afternoon for 12-pack of beer when I get to the end of my driveway I can turn left or I can turn right. And it's likely that mundane decision will affect the rest of my life more than anything else I do today. A red or green light at some corner means I miss running into the woman I eventually marry by just a few seconds. Sleeping in on some morning means I missed the load at the DZ where the plane crashed on take off. And so one day I got, out of the blue, an e-mail from Brian's daughter. The next day my computer blew its hard drive. So a day later I might not have ever seen that e-mail.

"Hi, you don't know me but I'm Brian Schubert's daughter . . . " Sometimes I think if I had not read further and just deleted that e-mail maybe Brian would still be alive today. But somehow I think not. The die was somehow already caste. But it was my suggestion that both Brian and Mike Pelkey come to that year's Bridge Day. They came to dinner at my house a few times over the next months and so began my friendship we both of them and their families.

That Bridge Day, Mike, the more spry of the two, made a jump from the bridge. It was his first jump of any kind in decades and his very first square jump. And it went fine. Brian, as I recall, didn't even consider jumping at the time and that seemed like a good call. Later that night they both stood at the podium and gave a talk at the post-BD meeting. Mike was nervous about it. He mentioned the jump earlier that day was going to be easier than this talk was going to be. I spent the late afternoon helping them pick topics to talk about, encouraging them, egging them on because I just knew from a BASE historical standpoint this was going to be a seminal moment. Brian, on the other hand, was just ready to go with a flow. You don't spend a career as a police officer without learning how to not sweat the small stuff.

As it turned out none of us needed to worry. If you were there, than you know, they flat out killed.

I'll admit I wondered and worried, how would they would they be received? Did anybody today really care anymore? Would they be booed off the stage? But just a few seconds into it people were standing, people were cheering, and some people were crying. I watched a circle close that night, a circle that reached back to 1966, a time before most in the room were even born. Elvis couldn't have walked in there and done better . . .

We hoisted more than a few beers that night, and like is said every year, it was the best BD ever. The next day Mike left for home on a high and Brian left for home with exactly one year to live.

Over the course of that next year we got together with them fairly often. Sometimes at my place, sometimes at Brian's daughter's house, sometimes at restaurants for things like birthdays and graduations. Brian was now 66-years old. And I started to notice something about him.

I'm no doctor, but I do work on an ambulance and I'd been around enough people with it to realize Brian was in the first or second stages of dementia. He wasn't trying to hide it, I'm almost sure like most he wasn't even aware of it. But he could seem fine most of the time, but if you looked and you saw it enough you'd see the signs. He was sometimes very emotional, he cried more than normal, he'd give his money away without thought. The reason, I think, we didn't notice these things right off is Brian was nothing if not a gentle giant. A bear of a man with a soft heart and warm smile. So the odd displays of behavior didn't, at first, seem so out of place. If his own family knew is hard to say, as these things come on so slowly it can appear just the normal state of affairs. And all year long Brian listened to Mike's story over and over of his jump at that last BD. So did he want to jump too? You bet your life he did. Brian had his own personal circle to close.

But he never said anything about it, at least not to me in the time I spent with him. I didn't attend BD that next year, and only heard about his death in an e-mail that night. To say I was shocked isn't enough. I wasn't shocked so much by his death as I was that he even attempted a jump in the first place.

Of course Jason, Johnny, and Jean didn't see the problem with Brian because they didn't know him well enough. His own family, and Mike too, maybe didn't see it because they were too close to him. Like a child who grows by leaps and bounds and only the occasional visiting Aunt notices it. But I did and so did Julia my girlfriend.

We call Brian a pioneer in BASE. And he was certainly that. Both Mike and Brian walked up the back side of El Capitan in 1966 not knowing anything at all about what they were about to attempt. There was no Internet, no books of instruction, no prior knowledge of any kind. They were operating on nothing but a novel idea and pure guts. But I think we are misunderstanding the term pioneer in Brian's case. He only made that one single BASE jump prior to his death.

He's like the pioneer who braved crossing the desert in a covered wagon during the expansion of the western United States in the 1800s. Then magically he's placed into a modern day Ferrari and let loose on the Autobahn. And then we wonder why he ran off the road?

I've always dis-liked the phrase, "they died doing what they loved." That's a simplistic platitude that only makes the still living feel better. But with Brian it might be somewhat true. I like to think his last year was a good one. I know his re-connection with the BASE community brought him much happiness. And I'm sure the last eight seconds of his life weren't at all frightening to him. I believe from the moment he stepped off the platform until he hit the water he was so sensorily overloaded that the only thing he was experiencing was pure joy . . .

So yes, it would be nice and tidy to just say everyone who steps off the bridge is responsible for themselves. But no man is an island.

NickD
BASE 194


Brian, at my home, wowing the woman . . .

[yuri_base]

Nick, brilliant, simply brilliant...

[leeloudallasmultipass]

Hey Nick

When are you going to write your book on the history of base , I would buy it love to hear all those storys you have in your brain please write them down and if you have been get it out lots of base jumpers would read it , i paid 300 pound for a copy of ground rush after DW let me read his signed copy .

bsbd feral

[badenhop]

Timing is everything...............
...............no man is an island.

We're all in this together, the time is now.
Nick, thanks for the inspiration.
Peace
Love
Joy