Dude Jumps Off A 500 Foot Bridge Then Lights His Parachute On Fire And You'll Never Guess How It Ends.... (You Probably Will)
(AP) — Authorities say a 73-year-old BASE jumper who died after leaping from an Idaho bridge had set his parachute on fire as part of a stunt. A graphic video of the fatal jump, posted to YouTube on Monday, shows someone engulfed in flames and falling from the Perrine Bridge into the Snake River, 500 feet below. James E. Hickey had apparently planned to ditch the flaming parachute and deploy a second chute in the May 7 stunt. Professional BASE jumper Sean Chuma told Twin Falls newspaper The Times-News that he had heard Hickey successfully performed the stunt skydiving. The initial report from the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office said only that Hickey’s parachute deployed too late. The video shows two BASE jumpers climbing over the railing of the Perrine Bridge and leaping at about the same time. But while one jumper glides safely away underneath a parachute, the other becomes engulfed in a fireball and falls quickly out of view. The video pans back to the river just after the burning jumper hits the water. A boat arrives seconds later, and the video ends.
Look I don’t care if it makes me a bad guy, I’m not shedding a tear for this guy. Doing shit like this isn’t a stunt, it’s an elaborate suicide. Maybe a surprise suicide because even if it works the first few times, it’s going to eventually not work. Every adrenaline junkie likes this knows there are risks to what they do. Those risks are that they’ll probably die, and that the internet will make fun of their failed videos. So don’t you come knocking on my door hoping to make me feel bad about what I’m gonna say… but, I laughed when I heard that belly flop. I laughed pretty hard, even. AND I WON’T APOLOGIZE FOR IT! Hinkey knew what he was signing up for the second he jumped off a bridge with a flaming bed sheet tied to his back. Survive and you win the award of conjuring up your next “look at me!” suicide, die and get called an idiot but belly flop champion.
