Latest Parachuting Stories

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. - Thousands of people watched a parachutist jump to his death from a bridge during a popular festival Saturday when his chute opened too late, a sheriff said. Brian Lee Schubert, 66, died of injuries suffered when he hit the New River, 876 feet below the New River Gorge Bridge, officials said. After the man's body was recovered and taken to a local funeral home, jumping at the festival resumed, said Fayette County Sheriff Bill Laird. Schubert, from Alta Loma, Calif., was...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A small plane chartered by a skydiving school crashed shortly after takeoff on Saturday in a rural area west of St. Louis, Missouri, killing four people on board and injuring four others, a local sheriff said. Deputy Doug Thomas of the Franklin County Sheriffs Department said witnesses reported hearing the plane's engines "either stall or fail" around 2:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. EDT), then saw the plane hit a utility pole and slam into the ground near a home. Thomas said...

NASA -- Three Kennedy Space Center engineers helped set two new world records in the parachuting sport of "canopy formation" on Nov. 25 and 26. Dave Hillebrandt of United Space Alliance, Kevin Keenan of Lockheed Martin and NASA's James Bolton were part of the record-setting, 81- and 85-person formation dives that took place over Lake Wales, Fla. All three men started skydiving in the late 1970s. An advertisement posted outside a Georgia Tech cafeteria first turned Bolton's attention...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Scientists have lost an experimental "space parachute" after it came back to earth in the remote wilderness of Russia's Pacific seaboard, news agencies said on Saturday. An inflatable, heat-proof cone that deploys on re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, scientists hope the device could offer a better way of bringing cargo and experiments back from the International Space Station. It was launched on board a missile from a Russian navy nuclear submarine on Friday,...

By Adam Tanner TWIN FALLS, Idaho (Reuters) - Steve Anderton climbed over the chest-high metal railing of the Perrine Bridge and planted his feet onto a tiny wooden platform little bigger than his two hiking boots. He paused for a few seconds as he looked out at the Snake River 480 feet below and jumped. While extending both arms, he curled up his body to flip backward and release a parachute, which allowed him to steer to the side of the riverbank in a safe landing. Dare trying a...

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Santa Claus can build toys, shimmy down a chimney and harness flying reindeer. But one thing he can't do any more is skydive near Disneyland. An annual "Jingle Bell Jump," with Santa parachuting to the Anaheim Town Square shopping center with gifts and greetings, was canceled for a second year because of a federal law restricting use of area airspace. Instead, Santa will float in a hot air balloon tethered to the ground Friday. Disney officials say the flight restrictions...