A 73-year-old base jumper died after intentionally setting his parachute ablaze. Why did he do it?

WAPO ^ | May 20, 2015 | Sarah Kaplan

[PROCON]

The video shows a tiny, dark figure leaning off the side of Idaho’s Perrine Bridge. The sky above is gray, the Snake River rumbles 500 feet below. The figure, 73-year-old base jumper James E. Hickey, leaps from the bridge and his parachute bursts into flame.

“What the hell?” a spectator behind the camera says, half shocked, half chuckling. “We gotta —”

But as distant fireball plummets toward the river below, it’s clear that something isn’t right. The laughter dies.

[PROCON]

Just dayum.

I suppose the liberal's answer would be that his parachute spontaneously combusted due to man-made global warming.

[TMA62]

An empty life needs the constant adrenaline rush

[SkyDancer]

It was a stunt. He deployed his reserve chute but he did it too late.

[MeshugeMikey]

the show must go on...

a very short show...

[Principled]

the chute did not burn - it floated away. It appears that the jumper lit himself and jumped?

[Principled]

Was that a reserve that floated off?

[JJ_Folderol]

It looked more like he set himself on fire rather than the ‘chute.

“Hold my beer and watch this!”

[JimRed]

A smoker?

[Gamecock]

Dang!

[humblegunner]

One thing for sure.. he won’t do it again.

[I want the USA back]

Gets no sympathy from me.

[OrangeHoof]

I read recently about another base jumper who died at age 43 and I ask myself how foolish these people are. If you are going to plan a jump off a bridge, that’s your business but make sure you’re going to survive it. Planning is not that difficult. Same with bungee jumpers. Rule #1 is to make sure the bungee is not so long that you crash into the earth. Assuming I didn’t want this to be the last day of my life or end up a quadriplegic, I would first make absolutely sure such horrors could not happen.

[PapaBear3625]

Looks like he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

[Jack Hydrazine]

BASE jumping like this would have been better for his health.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7XyB9RxT0g

Or he could have tried this.

Flaring Up - Surfing with a Flare - Red Bull Minor Threat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2HoZ4cU1r4

[b4its2late]

Hold ma beer and watch this!

[dennisw]

The recent deaths have put a renewed focus on the dangers of base jumping — an activity that veteran Hervé le Gallou described as “more like a suicide than a sport” in an interview with the New York Times. (Le Gallou died during a jump in the French Alps in 2012)

[Jack Hydrazine]

[ctdonath2]

That’s the comment I was looking for.

[onedoug]

Flaming idiot alert.

[seawolf101]