And They Call Us Crazy For "running Into The Burning Building"...

[MalahatTwo7]

Three Americans arrested, charged after "base jumping" off Vancouver hotel. Tuesday, November 12, 2002

VANCOUVER (CP) -- Three Americans have been arrested and charged after two men parachuted off from the 42nd floor of a downtown Vancouver hotel.

Police said two men jumped from the Empire Landmark Hotel on trendy Robson Street about 11 a.m. Sunday while a third man videotaped the jump, called base jumping.

The names of the men, all from Seattle, were not released.

One of the jumpers landing on the roof of a parked car, suffering minor injuries, while the other hit the side of a building and apparently tried grabbing onto an eavestrough one the way down, pulling it off the building.

Police also seized the videotape.

In Feb, 1999 -- Two skydivers jump from the tower of the Alex Fraser Bridge. The "sport" of BASE jumping, parachuting from stationary objects, is new in Vancouver. The acromym BASE stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans (such as this bridge), and Earth. {there was a photo with this}

© Copyright 2002 Canadian Press

The part that gets me is the guy who tried to grab onto the eavestrough to slow his descent!! HEEELLLLOOOOO!!!!!

[NJFFSA16]

We need some good smokejumpers....get their names and sign 'em up!

Now that's crazy.....jumping into burning trees!

[PeteThor813]

Yeah this same thing happened here. Two guys jumped off of our tallest building, a 48 story jump. They did fine the first time. And got away clean. Second try a couple of months later wasn't so good. One guy got hung up on the building about 35 floors up, and our heavy rescue had to come and get him. He actually died a couple of months later in a jump in Florida (I think). I guess he didn't learn his lesson about preplanning very well

[Temptaker]

The funny thing about these basejumpers is they got caught because someone saw one of them falling and called 911 for a medic, they thought it was an attempted suicide, or someone fell off the balcony. Robson is one of the busiest streets downtown, they are lucky that they hit a parked car and a building, there are worse things that could have happened. The polics were there before the guy who grabbed the eavestrough hit the ground. The video footage of the area shows a fence right next to where the eavestrough fell, that's gonna leave a mark.

[MalahatTwo7]

OOOOUUUUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHH!!!! That would have HURT. Still wondering at the "wisdom" of trying to use the eave as a stop/brake in the first place though. Guess they didnt' watch enough movies that show grabbing onto the eave is ususally not a good thing. Oh well.

[safetyhappy]

When I was younger someone BASE jumped from the Arch and I think they hit the side or something and were seriously injured or killed. I really don't remember what exactly happened. About 10 years ago someone jumped off again and got in serious trouble and caused 24-7 ranger patrols of the grounds for a few weeks.

[martinm]

Makes jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircfraft seem almost sensible