Irish Duck
Active member
Crash looked bad from NEZ.
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If anyone hears how the skydiver is... Please post.
- Thread starter Irish Duck
- Start date
grizfromhel
Well-known member
what happened???? for those of us not there.
Irish Duck
Active member
Crashed into a tree just outside of fence near southeast corner of stadium.
Grizaholic16
Well-known member
There were 3 skydivers (per usual); the first one on his way to the stadium caught a big gust of wind in the southeast corner of the stadium and tumbled into a tree. Left with a blanket covering his body in the ambulance. The other two skydivers had troubles getting to the field as well. They should not have jumped in that wind. :/
My roommate in my sophomore year at UM was a skydiver, and while jumping at the beginning of a football game, he pulled his cord and his leg caught in the strings..he had to land on it and the bone shot through his hip area...he lived in traction for over 6 months at St Pat's....his dreams were destroyed and he left college....a great guy from Anaconda with a lot of guts....
http://missoulian.com/news/local/skydiver-injured-at-griz-game-flown-to-seattle/article_54fac6ac-0262-11e1-8164-001cc4c002e0.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A member of the Silvertip Skydivers was blown off target during his descent into Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, then clipped a tree before crashing down onto a cement sidewalk just outside the stadium.
Blaine Wright, a veteran skydiver, was taken to St. Patrick Hospital immediately after the crash and later flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious injuries, including a fractured pelvis. The crash occurred just before the 1:05 p.m. kickoff of the Montana-Weber State football game.
Witnesses to the incident said Wright appeared to realize that he was not going to make it into the stadium as he descended in gusty winds, and turned back to try to land on the lawn just outside the southeast corner of the stadium.
The witnesses said his feet clipped a tree before he landed on his back on a cement wall along the sidewalk, then rolled onto the sidewalk itself.
"You could hear bones pop," said J.R. Garcia, who was tailgating in an RV and had stepped outside to watch the three skydivers. "He tried to land here (on the lawn), but the parachute picked him up and he landed right at our feet."
Wright, the first of the three Silvertip skydivers, was knocked unconscious, but had his eyes open and was talking with paramedics before he was immobilized on a backboard, placed on a stretcher and whisked away by ambulance.
A young girl standing on the sidewalk was knocked over after Wright landed and was screaming that her leg was in pain, the witnesses said, but was checked by paramedics and didn't require hospitalization.
Don Lakow of the Silvertip Skydivers said Wright knew he couldn't make his target and deliberately turned to avoid landing in the stadium crowd and injuring spectators.
"He apparently wasn't going to make it over the stadium wall, and to avoid the risk to hitting someone in the stands, he turned around," said Lakow, who monitors wind conditions in the stadium for the jumpers.
Emily Brandon, who was also in the tailgate party, said she called 9-1-1 and that help arrived "almost immediately."
"I talked with them, got a couple of sentences out and then they put me on hold, probably because everybody else was calling, too," she said.
***
The witnesses said that winds in the Hellgate Canyon, which can be very unpredictable, were strong and gusting. Crystal Lake, a weather technician with the National Weather Service in Missoula, said a 12:52 p.m. reading at the Missoula International Airport showed winds at 18 mph and gusting.
"But especially in the Hellgate Canyon, they have much stronger gusts," she said. "It's going to be kind of squirrelly out there."
Flags above the stadium were whipping strongly most of the morning, and at 1:20 p.m. were showing gusts blowing to the northeast, which would have had the skydivers parachuting almost directly into the wind.
Lakow said the skydiving club, which has had a decades-long relationship with UM, tracks wind conditions from an instrument on top of the stadium pressbox. At the time of the jump, those conditions seemed amenable.
However, he said, wind conditions just above the stadium were apparently erratic, a fact that he, the skydivers and the plane's pilot could not have known.
The skydivers, not UM, decide whether to make a jump on any given Saturday, according to UM athletic director Jim O'Day.
O'Day answered a question about that issue on Facebook. The question was posted on Sept. 21.
"This decision is made by the skydivers," O'Day wrote. "Since the east side expansion in Washington-Grizzly Stadium was completed a few years ago, there is now less room for error for their entrance into the field as it has created additional air pockets and wind tunnels. Thus, anytime the wind is gusting at 8 mph or more, it is likely the jumps will be canceled. The skydivers have access to wind gauges in the plane and at the airport for safety purposes."
Reached by phone during the game, O'Day said he was in the locker room with the Grizzly football team at the time of the jump and didn't witness the incident.
Lakow said Saturday's incident was the first mishap in the history of the club's jumps for Grizzly football games.
Lakow said Wright has been jumping with the Silvertip Skydivers for 37 years.
"He's a top-notch jumper," he said.
Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at [email protected].
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/skydiver-injured-at-griz-game-flown-to-seattle/article_54fac6ac-0262-11e1-8164-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1cDYRPqoM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A member of the Silvertip Skydivers was blown off target during his descent into Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, then clipped a tree before crashing down onto a cement sidewalk just outside the stadium.
Blaine Wright, a veteran skydiver, was taken to St. Patrick Hospital immediately after the crash and later flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious injuries, including a fractured pelvis. The crash occurred just before the 1:05 p.m. kickoff of the Montana-Weber State football game.
Witnesses to the incident said Wright appeared to realize that he was not going to make it into the stadium as he descended in gusty winds, and turned back to try to land on the lawn just outside the southeast corner of the stadium.
The witnesses said his feet clipped a tree before he landed on his back on a cement wall along the sidewalk, then rolled onto the sidewalk itself.
"You could hear bones pop," said J.R. Garcia, who was tailgating in an RV and had stepped outside to watch the three skydivers. "He tried to land here (on the lawn), but the parachute picked him up and he landed right at our feet."
Wright, the first of the three Silvertip skydivers, was knocked unconscious, but had his eyes open and was talking with paramedics before he was immobilized on a backboard, placed on a stretcher and whisked away by ambulance.
A young girl standing on the sidewalk was knocked over after Wright landed and was screaming that her leg was in pain, the witnesses said, but was checked by paramedics and didn't require hospitalization.
Don Lakow of the Silvertip Skydivers said Wright knew he couldn't make his target and deliberately turned to avoid landing in the stadium crowd and injuring spectators.
"He apparently wasn't going to make it over the stadium wall, and to avoid the risk to hitting someone in the stands, he turned around," said Lakow, who monitors wind conditions in the stadium for the jumpers.
Emily Brandon, who was also in the tailgate party, said she called 9-1-1 and that help arrived "almost immediately."
"I talked with them, got a couple of sentences out and then they put me on hold, probably because everybody else was calling, too," she said.
***
The witnesses said that winds in the Hellgate Canyon, which can be very unpredictable, were strong and gusting. Crystal Lake, a weather technician with the National Weather Service in Missoula, said a 12:52 p.m. reading at the Missoula International Airport showed winds at 18 mph and gusting.
"But especially in the Hellgate Canyon, they have much stronger gusts," she said. "It's going to be kind of squirrelly out there."
Flags above the stadium were whipping strongly most of the morning, and at 1:20 p.m. were showing gusts blowing to the northeast, which would have had the skydivers parachuting almost directly into the wind.
Lakow said the skydiving club, which has had a decades-long relationship with UM, tracks wind conditions from an instrument on top of the stadium pressbox. At the time of the jump, those conditions seemed amenable.
However, he said, wind conditions just above the stadium were apparently erratic, a fact that he, the skydivers and the plane's pilot could not have known.
The skydivers, not UM, decide whether to make a jump on any given Saturday, according to UM athletic director Jim O'Day.
O'Day answered a question about that issue on Facebook. The question was posted on Sept. 21.
"This decision is made by the skydivers," O'Day wrote. "Since the east side expansion in Washington-Grizzly Stadium was completed a few years ago, there is now less room for error for their entrance into the field as it has created additional air pockets and wind tunnels. Thus, anytime the wind is gusting at 8 mph or more, it is likely the jumps will be canceled. The skydivers have access to wind gauges in the plane and at the airport for safety purposes."
Reached by phone during the game, O'Day said he was in the locker room with the Grizzly football team at the time of the jump and didn't witness the incident.
Lakow said Saturday's incident was the first mishap in the history of the club's jumps for Grizzly football games.
Lakow said Wright has been jumping with the Silvertip Skydivers for 37 years.
"He's a top-notch jumper," he said.
Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at [email protected].
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/skydiver-injured-at-griz-game-flown-to-seattle/article_54fac6ac-0262-11e1-8164-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1cDYRPqoM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And thus ends another tradition.
ALPHAGRIZ1
Well-known member
I have video of it.........deciding if I should post it or not.
Oh save your comments I dont care what any of you think I will do whatever I want to regardless of what any of you say.
Oh save your comments I dont care what any of you think I will do whatever I want to regardless of what any of you say.
polsongrizz
Well-known member
I need a good laugh, so if you don't post it, email it to me.ALPHAGRIZ1 said:
ALPHAGRIZ1
Well-known member
I posted it on the MB board
http://www.maroonblood.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=471" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.maroonblood.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=471" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
ALPHAGRIZ1
Well-known member
You are not telling us anything we didnt already know..........
polsongrizz
Well-known member
:whocares: The only one I'm worried about is the girl. HE is a first class dick.100%GRIZ said:
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