3D"ABC

20/20

Leap of Faith

Skydivers Beware - Is Your Parachute Safe?

Dec. 4, 1997

BARBARA WALTERS

Picture, if you can, jumping out = of a plane and free falling at 120 miles an hour—the wind in your face, your hea= rt in your throat. The only thing that separates you from death is that parachute on your back. Well, people who skydive say they can never forget = the thrill. I'll bet. And statistics show that skydiving is really pretty safe.= But TOM JARRIEL tells us that when your life is in someone else's hands, you be= tter know something about them.

TOM JARRIEL, ABC NEWS (VO)

Why is this mass of humanity stampeding out of a perf= ectly good aircraft? Defying death at 13,000 feet while depending on a flimsy pie= ce of nylon and a few strings to get you down has a way of bonding participants instantly. Two hundred ninety—seven of them joined in this spectacle = out to set a world record, a snapshot of what's become the skydiving craze of t= he '90s. Advocates are quick to point out how safe the sport is. Chris Needles (ph), US Parachute Association director.

CHRIS NEEDLES, US PARACHUTE ASSOCIATION

For the student jumper, there's very little he can do= to either save himself or hurt himself because everything is controlled and largely done for him.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

If everything goes right. = Six years ago in Utah= , college freshman Paul Robertson trained to make his first free fall, and his crisis was caught on video made by another jumper. Robertson exited the pla= ne with his instructors, and his main parachute opened safely but didn't hold.= The canopy suddenly deflated. Without the main chute cut free, his emergency ba= ckup suddenly deployed. The two chutes tangled, and he spiraled to his death. Wi= th a history of tragedies like that, sport jumping enthusiasts were happy to see none other than former president George Bush show up wanting to jump.

GEORGE BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT

Up, down.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Bush, at age 72, fulfilled a life—long wish and made a so - called “accelerated free fall.” Chris Needles was right up there in the sky with Bush, making = sure the ex—president safely landed.

CHRIS NEEDLES

At last, skydiving earned a little bit of respect.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

The sport has become less dangerous in the last 10 ye= ars, as the number of jumps has tripled to three million annually. According to = the USPA, an average of 30 skydivers are killed a year, more than half of them seasoned veterans.

JUMP MASTER

Hard right turn.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Of first—time jumpers, rates have actually decl= ined over the past decade—from 30 percent to 17 percent of the fatalities.=

JUMP MASTER

Are you ready?

SKYDIVER

Ready.

JUMP MASTER

Let's jump.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

It's a huge business. A quarter of a million American= s do try it every year. (Screaming)

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

To reduce the odds of injury or death, today many beg= inners make their first skydive tethered to a trained jump master, sharing one lar= ge canopy. (Screaming) They're called tandem jumps and provide the same excite= ment but with less risk.

SKYDIVER

I can't believe I'm doing this.

JUMP MASTER

You're doing it.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

A typical jump might cost $200. Good money for the 30= 0 US skyd= iving centers, called drop zones, around the country at small airports.

SKYDIVERS

Whoo—hoo!

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

How risky is it? Well, at drop zones like Blue Sky Ra= nch in upstate New York<= /st1:place>, beginners are warned of the danger of injury, even death.

BLUE SKY RANCH EMPLOYEE

First thing we'd like you to do is to sign your life = away. Cross your Ts and dot your Is.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

The pages of legal documents beginners must sign are = to protect drop zone operators in the event of accidents.

MIKE KANSZIK (PH), JUMP MASTER

It has a reserve on top, and the main on the bottom. =

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

In truth, students' survival depends on the instructo= rs, like jump master Mike Kansz= ik, and the condition of the gear they're issued. The sport regulates itself, setting its own safety rules. (on camera) You kn= ow you are not coming back down on this plane.

SKYDIVER

No, I know that.

TOM JARRIEL

You are not going to change your mind?

SKYDIVER

No.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

The US Parachute Association tries to enforce basic s= afety rules which the drop zones are supposed to follow. Effective enforcement is= the real problem.

CHRIS NEEDLES

Well, we have no regulatory power to shut anybody dow= n.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

The Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, has lit= tle control over skydivers. The people who pack emergency parachutes, though, a= re licensed by the FAA. Joe D'Afflisio is a master parachute rigger at Blue Sky Ranch in New York.

JOE D'AFFLISIO, MASTER PARACHUTE RIGGER

It's very simple. This is the last piece of material between that person and eternity.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

So why, with FAA oversight on packing chutes at a jump facility approved by the Parachute Association, did 13 jumpers die over a 2= 2 - year period? There are drop zones, it appears, where some operators cut cor= ners when it comes to safety. (on camera) The skydivi= ng center which operated here for 20 years at the S= heridan Airport in Oregon was one such case in point. Ted Mayfield, who ran it, had a criminal record and ignored repeated citations = from the FAA. It seemed no one could stop him from cashing in on the booming business of sport parachuting.

(VO)

These videos were taken when Mayfield ran the center = four years ago. He was a USPA member and an FAA—certified parachute packer. But Mayfield had been barred from aviation for flying planes without a pilo= t's license in 1988. Chuck Schaffer, an ex—paratrooper, didn't know Mayfield's history when he rented skydiving gear from him five years later.= His brother Paul says Chuck was getting back into the sport. (on camera) What was there about parachuting that he liked especially?

PAUL SCHAFFER, CHUCK'S BROTHER

He used to call it the adrenaline rush he would get. Parachuting gave him the ultimate feeling of freedom.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Chuck Schaffer plunged to his death at Mayfield's dro= p zone that September. Neither of his two parachutes opened.

CHRIS NEEDLES

If the chute does not open, assuming he tried to depl= oy it somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, he has about 10 to 15 seconds befor= e he hits the ground. And he's going at a speed of 125 miles an hour. So if he h= as no canopy out at all, there's no chance of surviving a fall.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

The sheriff's accident investigation was led by Serge= ant Jim Carelle (ph), who says skydiving deaths are= among the most gruesome.

SGT JIM CARELLE, SHERIFF'S OFFICE

A body can't take that kind of impact without just br= eaking and shattering bones all over the place and a lot of internal injuries.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

The family became furious when they learned the parac= hute Mayfield rented Schaffer was defective, in direct violation of 20 FAA safety regulations. (on camera) What was the single most devastating discovery made during the investigation?

PAUL SCHAFFER

For me, it was that the device that activated his res= erve chute had been stamped “failed” and had been sold to the Sherid= an jump center for parts, and that they put it into a parachute and sent someb= ody up into the sky to jump out of an airplane with it.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

With growing evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the det= ective raided Mayfield's skydiving center and seized all his parachute gear. FAA inspectors examined and tested much of the equipment and found some of the = jump gear to be worn, dangerous and defective.

JIM CARELLE

One individual that worked for M= r Mayfield for a while—that he was paid and compensated in beer.

TOM JARRIEL (on camera)

Beer?

JIM CARELLE

Beer.

TOM JARRIEL

Packing chutes.

JIM CARELLE

Packing chutes.

TOM JARRIEL

And paid in beer.

JIM CARELLE

And paid in beer.

TOM JARRIEL (on camera)

Ted Mayfield was angered but unfazed by the seizure o= f all of his parachute equipment. Just one day after his skydiving business was r= aided by police in 1994, he was back in business with borrowed gear. He allowed a= man equipped with what authorities would later describe as an improperly modifi= ed parachute to make his first jump out of a plane here. That man was 85—year—old Lee Perry, Sr.

(VO)

Lee Perry was a born adventurer, who, in his 80s, bou= ght a motorcycle, went up in a glider, took up scuba diving and decided to try parachuting. Unaware of the sheriff's raid the day before, Perry took off f= rom the Sheridan airport on February 12, 1994. Outfitted in a parachute Mayfield had borrowe= d, Perry was to make a static line jump. The parachute was supposed to open automatically, like this,

when a jumper exits the pl= ane. But neither of Perry's parachutes opened. His body was recovered next to a trai= ler home.

RICHARD PERRY, LEE PERRY'S SON

You just can't imagine what it does to you to find ou= t that it was really negligence and unnecessary, and you had been lied to.

TOM JARRIEL (on camera)

We're looking for Mr Mayf= ield.

TED MAYFIELD, PARACHUTE RIGGER

Yeah, I'm he.

TOM JARRIEL

Oh, yeah. The man in the flesh. Tom Jarriel. I'm with ABC News.

TED MAYFIELD

Yes.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

We found Mayfield at the same airport drop zone where= 13 skydivers, including Chuck Schaffer and Lee Perry, had died. (on camera) The allegations against= you by these people is that you gave them poor training and you had poor equipment. What happened?

TED MAYFIELD

Well, the main malfunctioned. It came up underneath h= is arm, and he never bothered pulling the reserve. He never made any attempt to pull the reserve or the emergency parachute.

RICHARD PERRY

That was a lie to cover up what really happened, whic= h was the static line, which pulls it out automatically for him, was improperly rigged and failed.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Several of those tumbling to their deaths were lost b= ecause their reserve chutes, those required by the FAA to be packed by a licensed rigger, didn't work. And Mayfield, the FAA reported, in some cases was the certified rigger. Mayfield bitterly fired back, accusing the FAA inspector = of knowing nothing about packing sport parachutes.

TED MAYFIELD

That man could not pack that parachute. Did not know how.

TOM JARRIEL (on camera)

So you feel you knew more about parachutes and packin= g them than the inspector?

TED MAYFIELD

Yes, by far.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Chuck Schaffer's parachute, provided by Mayfield, was equipped with an automatic device that was supposed to open the second safe= ty chute at 800 feet. (on camera) Did you pack that chute?

TED MAYFIELD

Yes, I did.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

But Schaffer's automatic opener failed, and the FAA f= ound that Mayfield had been warned not to use it. (on camera) The question, though, is the automatic opener. The authorities say = it said something to the effect “not operational, for parts only.”=

TED MAYFIELD

Yeah.

TOM JARRIEL

Meaning it was junk.

TED MAYFIELD

It may be a couple of hundred feet high or low.

TOM JARRIEL

A couple of hundred feet? =

TED MAYFIELD

High or low. OK. I can liv= e with a couple of hundred feet high or low.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

While Mayfield could live with it, Chuck Schaffer did= n't.

PAUL SCHAFFER

I wanted to take Ted Mayfield up in a plane and put t= he chute that he had sent my brother up with him and give him a kick out of the plane. Let him take the same chances he gave my brother.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Ted Mayfield pleaded guilty to criminal negligence in= the two skydiving deaths and served 10 months in prison.

TED MAYFIELD

I'm the victim of the heavy—handed work of the Federal Aviation Administration. That's what I'm a victim of.

TOM JARRIEL (on camera)

How did he defy your authority so long and so belligerently?

PEGGY GILLIGAN (PH), FAA

There are some people who just don't follow the rules= . And Mr Mayfield is one of those people.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Peggy Gilligan heads the FAA office that spent 20 yea= rs filing complaints against Mayfield before his skydiving operation finally s= hut down.

PEGGY GILLIGAN

We revoked his certificates. We took him to court. We= had fines imposed. We ultimately had him taken to jail. And with all of those actions, Mr Mayfield refuses to follow the rule= s.

TOM JARRIEL (on camera)

So you want to get back into aviation?

TED MAYFIELD

Oh, yes, yeah.

TOM JARRIEL

If you can.

TED MAYFIELD

Once you're in aviation, any part of it, it's really = tough to get out, yeah. It really is. It's in your blood.

TOM JARRIEL

He makes you look very ineffective.

PEGGY GILLIGAN

We continue to monitor Mr Mayfield. He is currently on probation and if, in fact, we see any activiti= es that he is not permitted to be involved in, we will be back in court.

TOM JARRIEL (VO)

Most first—time jumpers take the leap only once= , then quit. But about 33,000 others are eventually hooked, and some go on to perf= orm remarkable aerial feats. Skydiving has become a seductive sport, where those who are in the greatest danger are the experienced jumpers who, like test pilots, keep pushing the envelope to the outer limits.

HUGH DOWNS

Great story.

BARBARA WALTERS

I think they are crazy.

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