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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moonray who wrote (10414)	12/9/1997 10:24:00 PM
From: David Lawrence	Respond to of 22053

Fresh meat for the Darwin Awards........ 3 Skydivers Plunge to Death Over S. Pole By David Ljunggren LONDON (Reuters) - Three experienced skydivers on an adventure tour plunged to their deaths at the South Pole when their parachutes failed to open, officials said Sunday. A spokesman for Canadian firm Adventure Network International, which organized the trip, said the dead parachutists were among a six-man team which had jumped at around 8,500 feet over the South Pole on Saturday. "Three landed without problems but unfortunately two of the parachutes appear not to have deployed at all and one hardly deployed. It's a very sad situation," Michael McDowell said by telephone. The tragedy only became clear when the small plane which had dropped the parachutists landed to pick them up. When just three of the jumpers appeared, U.S. servicemen from a nearby base joined the hunt. "They went out in snowmobiles and found the first body very quickly. The other two were close by," he said. Two of the dead were U.S. citizens, aged 36 and 43, while the third was a 49-year-old Austrian. Each had paid $22,000 to take part. "I am mystified. These were extremely experienced skydivers who had each jumped hundreds of times. We don't have any clue as to what happened," McDowell said. "They all brought their own parachutes which they packed themselves," he added, saying possible causes included equipment failure, an error of judgment or weather conditions. Two of the dead men were coordinators for the jump and had briefed the others beforehand. All were wearing protective clothing against the cold, although the drop would only have lasted between 90 and 120 seconds. "There are always risks involved with parachuting and you can never cancel them all out," McDowell said. The bodies are now at the firm's South Pole base and are due to be flown to Chile on Monday Dozens of people have jumped at the North Pole but few try at the South Pole, mainly because of the expense and logistical difficulties. McDowell said he believed two of the three dead men had also jumped at the North Pole.