Number 10 Durdle Door Incidents For years, the Durdle Door, a rock arch on
the Dorset coast of England, has been attracting daredevil cliff jumpers.
The massive rock extends from the beach into the water and, at its highest point, stands
at an estimated 200 feet.
Striking the water’s surface from that height, even in the vertical position known as “tombstoning”,
can result in life-altering injuries and even death.
On the same day, in late May of 2020, several jumpers were hurt while leaping off the cliff.
One man, in his 20s, suffered serious spinal injuries while a second cliff jumper was left
with a broken leg.
The closest call, however, was experienced by 20-year-old Ervin Aliaj who, as he struck
the water on his side, remembered feeling paralyzed.
It was the effect of several of his ribs being shattered.
He was extremely fortunate that paddle-boarder Michael Wiley, after seeing the men performing
the dangerous jumps, had positioned himself near the cliff in case anyone needed rescuing.
Aliaj would’ve drowned if not for Wiley, who pulled him from the water and successfully
brought him to shore.
Aliaj was airlifted to a hospital and subsequently recovered.
Number 9 Ciara Romero On January the 4th of 2018, Colorado woman
Ciara Romero died in a bungee-jumping accident at the Get Air trampoline park, in Grand Junction.
At the site, participants climbed a silo tower and then leapt from a 70-foot-tall wooden
platform.
They free fell roughly 20 feet before being caught by the cord and safely lowered to the
ground.
20-year-old Romero’s jump went horribly wrong.
She somehow became disconnected from her harness and plummeted to her death.
An investigation called the accident “virtually unprecedented” and couldn’t identify a
clear cut reason for the tragically failed jump.
The state’s regulatory body for amusement rides found no safety violations and speculated
that Romero’s death had been caused by an initial connection between the carabiner and
the D-ring on the harness.
They weren’t, however, able to determine if the connection had been compromised prior
to or during the free fall.
Number 8 Jon James In 2018, Canadian rapper Jon James plunged
to his death in British Columbia following a daredevil stunt in which he walked on the
wing of an airplane.
34-year-old James had started his career as a professional free skier and became the first
to successfully land a backflip transferring from rail to rail.
However, after sustaining multiple injuries, including a broken back and a fractured neck,
he began rapping and producing hip hop music.
He ultimately became known for his music videos which would often feature action sports stunts.
For months, James had been practicing intensely for his latest video that would’ve seen
him walk on the wing of a plane while rapping.
On October the 20th, he took to the sky in a small Cessna.
James walked out on the plane’s wing, as planned, but as he went further towards the
tip his weight caused the plane to enter a downward spiral that the pilot wasn’t able
to correct.
James was wearing a parachute but, as the Cessna went down, he held on to the wing for
too long.
By the time he let go, he didn’t have time to deploy his parachute.
James crashed into the ground and died instantly.
Minutes later, the pilot was able to regain control and land safely.
James’ wife, Playboy model Kali West, his friends and family took to social media to
express their regrets at his passing while a fundraiser was started, with the goal set
at $10 million, aimed at increasing the outreach of James’ music.
Number 7 Mary Katherine Connell In January of 2016, a woman and her instructor
perished in an ill-fated BASE jump, off the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, California.
Mary Katherine Connell, a 30-year-old Tennessee native, was described by her family to have
had an affinity for adrenaline-inducing activities, like BASE jumping and skydiving.
Connell dropped roughly 300 feet and wasn’t reported to have encountered problems with
the deployment of the parachute.
The crux of the matter was that she’d missed her landing spot and fell into Bixby Creek,
which feeds into the Pacific Ocean.
Connell’s companion, Finnish skydiving instructor Rami Kajala, had been filming her jump.
Upon seeing her swept away by waves, he dove into the water and attempted to save her.
Neither surfaced and, in spite of an extensive search, their bodies were never found.
Both were presumed to have drowned after a GoPro, with footage of their final moments,
was found on the beach.
The authorities studied it but chose not to release the video.
Number 6 Vishnu Viswanath and Meenakshi Moorthy In 2018, a couple fell to their deaths from
Taft Point, at Yosemite National Park.
29-year-old Vishnu Viswanath and his wife Meenakshi Moorthy, aged 30, were popular travel
bloggers, who’d recently moved to San Jose from New York.
From their travels they’d uploaded numerous photos to their Instagram, some of which featured
the thrill-seeking couple skydiving or posing on cliffs.
In one of the posts, as Moorthy sat on the edge of the Grand Canyon, she admitted to
her love of daredevil acts but pondered “Is our life just worth one photo?”
The post would later read as foreshadowing.
The day after they’d last been seen at Taft Point, park rangers recovered their bodies
from the bottom of the scenic overlook.
The couple had plummeted more than 800 feet, which is higher than the Golden Gate Bridge
towers.
Each had sustained multiple traumatic injuries to the head, neck, chest and abdomen.
It’s believed that they’d been taking photos prior to the fatal drop, because a
tripod had been set up near the cliff’s edge.
While the specifics of the fall remain unclear, the authorities claimed that the couple had
alcohol in their system.
According to CBS, San Francisco man Sean Matteson may have been one of the last people to have
seen Moorthy and Viswanath alive.
He’d accidentally captured Moorthy in a selfie at Taft Point.
In the photo, she can be seen in the background, over Matteson’s shoulder, with her distinct
pink hair flowing in the wind.
Number 5 An Liu In May of 2020, a 24-year-old woman passed
away following a tragic wingsuit flying accident, at the Tianmen Mountain National Park, in
Central China's Hunan Province.
The thrill-seeking pilot was identified as university student An Liu.
She was described as experienced, with over 500 flights to her name.
Liu leapt from a helicopter, at around 8,200 feet, followed by a videographer who recorded
her flight.
A few seconds into the jump, she started to deviate significantly from her flight path
while also rapidly losing altitude.
The videographer tried to pursue Liu, desperately waving to her that she was off course, but
was soon forced to abandon the pursuit because he was rapidly approaching the mountain.
He adjusted, lost sight of Liu and subsequently landed safely.
The video that the cameraman had captured would end up representing Liu’s final moments.
The woman was declared missing for seven days before she was found in a dense wood.
Her parachute had not been opened and she’d sustained devastating injuries in the impact.
Media outlets would subsequently refer to Liu as the first Chinese person to die in
a wingsuit flying accident.
Number 4 Wayne Seeley In June of 2020, one of the UK’s top paragliders
died after crashing into power cables that carried 11,000 volts, in Eastington, England.
As 41-year-old Wayne Seeley approached his landing area, at a local school playing field
near his home, he phoned his fiancée from the air.
Seeley had over 25 years of experience in paragliding and, in March of that same year
had completed a cross-country flight of 73 miles.
His fiancée went outside and expected to see him land safely on the field.
Looking back on the incident, the woman would remember that everything seemed to be in order
during his approach.
Seeley then maneuvered too close to the power cables and skimmed them with the base of his
harness.
An eruption of sparks and a massive bang followed.
Seeley instantly dropped to the ground in a cloud of smoke.
A coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death with electrocution as the primary factor.
Number 3 Vincent Reffet In 2014, Frenchman Vincent Reffet shocked
the world when he performed a BASE jump of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building,
setting a world record in the process.
After thousands of parachute jumps, he turned his attention to wingsuit flying.
Reffet ultimately became part of the Jetman Dubai crew.
With carbon-Kevlar wings strapped to their backs, pilots use four mini jet engines to
power the suit, enabling them to hover, stop, turn and even perform loops and rolls.
The jetwing can reportedly reach speeds of over 150 mph.
In February of 2020, Reffet achieved a milestone when he took off from a platform in Dubai.
Unlike previous flights, he didn’t jump from a tall building or from a helicopter.
Thanks to a computerized stabilization system, he was able to take off from the ground, hover
and then fly forward.
A clip of the flight, showing Reffet as he soared above the city’s skyline, was viewed
by millions on YouTube.
Reffet’s passing was mourned by the entire wingsuit flying community but the particularities
of the accident remain unclear.
What’s known is that, in November of 2020, he was training in Dubai.
Reffet reportedly lost control after going into a backflip at 800 feet above ground.
Protocol, established prior to the flight, dictated that Reffet should deploy the pyro-rocket
emergency parachute if the jetwing became uncontrollable.
For unknown reasons he didn’t do so and fatally crashed into the ground.
Today's topic was requested by Heather Poppell.
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Number 2 Adam Esteves Gomes Dias Martins In October of 2020, Brazilian man Adam Esteves
Gomes Dias Martins suffered a devastating fall after bungee jumping from a bridge, in
the country’s south-east.
25-year-old Martins was in the municipality of Antonio Dias, at the Prainha Viaduct.
The bridge, a popular bungee jumping spot, has an estimated height of 330 feet, meaning
that it’s about as tall as the Big Ben clock tower.
The thrill seeker jumped from it, on October the 4th, but, instead of the expected effect
of recoiling back up, he crashed into the ground.
Martins’ companions, some of whom would later be treated for shock, called the emergency
services who pronounced him dead at the scene.
The root cause of the incident wasn’t revealed but, based on local media reports, his cord
was either too long or it had snapped in mid-air.
Number 1 Fahd Ibrahim Jamil Al-Lakma In 2021, a Syrian thrill-seeker was killed
instantly after landing on a tourist boat following a jump off the Raouche Rocks, in
Beirut, Lebanon.
Onlookers had desperately shouted at Fahd Ibrahim Jamil Al-Lakma not to jump as they
saw the boat emerge from a tunnel.
However, Al-Lakma’s view of it was likely obstructed by the cliff.
He was far away and presumably thought the people in the distance, recording his jump
with their phones, were cheering him on.
A harrowing video of the incident later circulated online.
Al-Lakma leapt off the rock, free fell 115 feet and then struck the boat with his head.
He died on the spot and his lifeless body was pulled from the water.
The boat’s captain was also injured but he was reported to have survived after being
taken to a hospital.
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