1980s, South Carolina | A parachute instructor was videotaping the lessons he was giving to a group of trainees. He had attached the video camera to his helmet so that it would capture the entire day of instruction. The group of enthusiastic beginners went up in the plane, and the instructor led them through preparations for the jump.

When they reached the jump site, the students and instructor jumped from the plane, tape still running. A few minutes later, the instructor realized that he had been so focused on preparing his trainees for the jump, which needed to be perfect for the sake of the videotaped lesson, that he had forgotten to strap on his own parachute.

All but the last ten feet of his fall was recorded by the camera. The very last part of the tape was destroyed by the impact.

EEk, scary way to go. How can you forget? But I guess when you are in a situation where you could get sued for neglection of responsibilty, you have to be intense.

That is scary... can you imagine the look on his face when he realised it...

I was going to post this as a thread. But it seems to fit this one nicely...

A plane was about to crash. There were 5 people on board and
only 4 parachutes.
The first person said. " I am Roy Keane, one of the best
footballers in Ireland. I am worth a lot of money and my fans need me so I
think I should be saved."
The others agreed and gave him one of the parachutes and off he
went.
The second person said "I am Gerry Adams, a radical Irish
politician who can really help my country and I think I should be saved."
The others said." o.k." and gave him a parachute.
The third person said "I am David Beckham, captain of the
English National squad. I have a wife and two sons. Everyone knows I am a
really nice guy and everyone thinks I am stupid, but I'm not, so I am taking a
parachute."and off he went.
There were two folk left, the Pope and a 10 year old schoolgirl.
The Pope said, "child I am old and frail and have lived my life
while you are young with everything before you." " You take the parachute
and I will stay with the aircraft and take my chance"
"It's o.k.." said the girl, "there are still two parachutes.
David Beckham picked up my schoolbag."
[img]smile.gif[/img]

How do we know that he realised this - did he tell someone?

I would assume we know he realised his mistake by the words on the tape. Probably something to the tune of

ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit

LOL good joke Jorath [img]smile.gif[/img]

This one's an urban legend, guys. (re: HOAX). There was no recorded accidents in South Carolina of a paratrooper forgetting his parachute. As Donut so astutely pointed out, no one could be so prescient as to be able to tell what he was thinking at 20,000 feet, and as the website where I checked this story pointed out, the camera and tape would have been completely obliterated by the fall, not just the last 10 seconds of it. :rolleyes:

*sigh* Big waste of time...

-Sazerac

Agreed! I just posted as a funny story. One only need to look at the date and that it's unconfirmed by Darwin after all this time.

aw crap. Got me excited over nothing. :D [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Agreed! I just posted as a funny story. One only need to look at the date and that it's unconfirmed by Darwin after all this time.</font>[/QUOTE]Sorry, Arvon, I didn't mean *you* by that...I was referring to the people who come up with these hoaxes. I mean, I wish I had that much time on my hands! ;)

-Saz