Paul's Comments

It was reported that a man received a parachute jump as a birthday present from his girlfriend. As it was his first jump, he had an instructor to to show him how; they did a tandem jump where the two of them are tethered together.

After they jumped out of the plane, his instructor had a heart attack and died. He suspected something was wrong when the instructor stopped answering his questions. The man, using nothing more than his own insight from what he had seen on TV, figured out how to steer and aim the chute so he landed properly. The man credited his military training in allowing him not to panic.

It's been said that he's lucky to be alive and fortunate he was able to figure out how. An associate of mine who has had parachute training confirmed the guy must have been very bright to figure this out on his own; I suspected as much.

News reports did not indicate, since the instructor did not finish showing him how to make the jump, whether or not the man got a refund. But I'm sure it's a jump he will never forget. On the other hand, since he did survive it and got an even more exciting one, some might say that he got it at a discount and could have been charged more.