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Man falls to his death from Grand Canyon's Skywalk overlook - namesake national park is America's most dangerous, with highest numbers of deaths
Daily Mail ^ | 6/16/23 | Stephen M. Lepore

Posted on 06/17/2023 3:03:48 AM PDT by Libloather

A man fell to his death at the Grand Canyon Skywalk earlier this week, as the Grand Canyon National Park was recently named the deadliest of America's 63 national parks.

The unidentified man, 33, went over the edge of the Sky Walk the morning of June 5, falling 4,000 feet down to his death.

Search and rescue teams from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office used ropes and a helicopter to try and help the fallen man.

Crews pronounced the man dead at the scene and transferred him to the Hualapai Nation, who operate the attraction.

It's not clear if the victim fell from the edge of the canyon or from the Skywalk structure itself, though the county search and rescue team posted a link to a suicide prevention hotline on Facebook.

The investigation into his death is ongoing but the Grand Canyon has consistently proved to be a dangerous spot for those taking risks from great heights.

It is best known for the Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out 70 feet from the canyon walls and gives visitors a view of the Colorado River 4,000 feet below.

The Canyon and the river have deep threads in the Hualapai tribe's history. The lower 108 miles of the Canyon and parts of the Colorado River are situated on the Hualapai Reservation.

Meanwhile, Grand Canyon National Park - which is not affiliated with the Skywalk - was named the deadliest national park in the United States.

A Freedom of Information Act request uncovered that at least six people have died and 56 more have gone missing over the last five years at Grand Canyon National Park.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Outdoors; Science
KEYWORDS: america; canyon; dangerous; skywalk
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To: DoodleBob
I remember that view well. My wife and I were up there during our honeymoon back in 1987 and had dinner up there as well. We then took our children there on a trip sometime in the late 1990s.

The best Manhattan views however are from Top Of The Rock at Rockefeller Center. Not as crowded and as you are midtown, the views are spectacular all around.

Empire State Building observatory is overcrowded and nothing special. The main observation deck is on the 86th floor so you aren't even near the top of the building unless you want to pay much more for access to the 102nd. Plus, in order to get tickets, you have to dodge the unauthorized vendors on the street selling overpriced "fast lane" tickets - which only just put you in the regular line.

Never been to the new World Trade Center (Freedom Tower), which also has an observation deck.

41 posted on 06/17/2023 5:31:41 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (5,301,904 Truth | 86,921,174 Twitter)
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To: Baldwin77

....toured the Grand Canyon a few years back...the one statistic the tour guides never talk about are the suicides that happen every year or so there...those 56 “missing” people are probably suicides....jus’ sayin’ ......


42 posted on 06/17/2023 5:33:31 AM PDT by TokarevM57
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To: Vendome

After the first 1,000 feet of fall he was heard to say “so far, so good”


43 posted on 06/17/2023 5:34:53 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
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To: DoodleBob

Whoa! Tallest building I’ve been in was Chicago. Sears Tower, maybe.


44 posted on 06/17/2023 5:36:22 AM PDT by NetAddicted (MAGA2024)
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To: Libloather
There are a lot of things I’ve seen in person that were less impressive than their pictures; The Grand Canyon was not one of them. In fact, a picture can’t really convey the scale - several miles across and a mile down. Definitely going back.

Yes, there were some Darwin Award contestants posing at the very edge of the cliffs.

45 posted on 06/17/2023 5:41:43 AM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: NetAddicted; SamAdams76

It was called the Sears Tower, now it’s called the Willis Tower.

I was up there, too.

And I visited the observation floor of the Empire State Building (yeap…nothing special).

And each time, I felt like mankind wasn’t supposed to be that high up.


46 posted on 06/17/2023 5:47:06 AM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity’s waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: Libloather

I’ve never been there, but I really doubt that there’s an uninterrupted vertical drop of 4,000 feet below the Skywalk. It says that the Colorado River is some 4,000 feet lower in elevation than the Skywalk, which extends horizontally 70 feet out from the rim of the canyon. I doubt if the river below is only 70 feet laterally from the rim. If I’m wrong about this, I’m sure someone will let me know.

The guy might have struck a few hundred feet down, then bounced a very long way down after that, but I don’t think he did a 4,000-foot free fall. I also don’t think the S & R team would have tried to rope down 4,000 feet, either.

Another piece of Daily Mail journalism.


47 posted on 06/17/2023 5:48:53 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Libloather
Search and rescue teams from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office used ropes and a helicopter to try and help the fallen man.

If he fell 4,000 feet, I'm pretty sure there was no "helping" him. It's a recovery operation -- or more accurately, a wash-down.

48 posted on 06/17/2023 5:52:18 AM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: Caipirabob

Ah, Phoenix! A lovely place.


49 posted on 06/17/2023 5:53:42 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Gay State Conservative

You’ll presumably never know that you landed, because your brain is dead before it recognizes you stopped. Or so I’ve read.


50 posted on 06/17/2023 5:54:22 AM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: FoxInSocks

Yes,it’s not difficult to imagine anyone falling that distance having a massive,fatal heart attack or stroke on the way down. And I suspect that that would even be true with a young,healthy person.


51 posted on 06/17/2023 5:58:10 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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To: zeestephen

“A free falling human body quickly reaches a max speed of about 120 mph.”

World record is 318 mph.


52 posted on 06/17/2023 6:02:37 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: zeestephen; V_TWIN; Larry Lucido; SamAdams76; Libloather; Adder; Gay State Conservative; ...
Any thoughts about final thoughts?

I read a story Kevin Hines, a suicidal man who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and lived. In 2018, Hines told his story to ABC News, recalling the feeling he had the moment that he jumped.

“Instant regret, powerful, overwhelming,” he remembers feeling. “As I fell, all I wanted to do was reach back to the rail, but it was gone. The thoughts in those four seconds, it was ‘What have I just done? I don't want to die.'”

Luckily for Hines, he turned around in mid-air and hit the water in a seated position. While he shattered three vertebrae in the fall, he was still alive. While he soon surfaced, it's no surprise that given his injuries, it was hard to stay afloat. That's when something incredible happened.

“Something began circling beneath me, and I mean something very large, very slimy, and very alive,” Hines recalls. “And I'm freaking out, and I'm thinking ‘You've got to be kidding me, I didn't die jumping off that stupid bridge, and a shark is going to eat me?.' I realized I'm not trying to stay afloat. I'm now lying on my back, being kept buoyant by this thing.”

(It was a sea lion that) kept Hines afloat until he was rescued by the Coast Guard.

53 posted on 06/17/2023 6:07:44 AM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity’s waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: Sirius Lee

i see what you did there. and it will have an impact.


54 posted on 06/17/2023 6:07:44 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
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To: DoodleBob
Last year we went to NYC to do some sightseeing. We went to a new thing...I forget its name...that looks really funny and when at the top gives a great view of Manhattan.

Turns out it was closed because several people had committed suicide by jumping off of it.

55 posted on 06/17/2023 6:11:33 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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To: DoodleBob

Yup,I did the WTC twice. The first time the rooftop deck was closed so we did the enclosed deck. The second time we did the rooftop. One of the things I recall most vividly that day was seeing a helicopter fly by...*below* us!


56 posted on 06/17/2023 6:14:14 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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To: Libloather

Guess he won the Darwin Award; what’d he do? Climb over the rail or something? Is there no fence? People can just walk off that thing?


57 posted on 06/17/2023 6:38:35 AM PDT by SkyDancer (My Talents Are So Hidden That Even I Can't Find Them ...)
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To: Libloather

I’m afraid of heights. No way I would ever walk out on that thing.


58 posted on 06/17/2023 6:38:58 AM PDT by ducttape45 (Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.")
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To: Libloather

Crews pronounced the man dead at the scene . . .

A 4,000 foot fall tends to leave no survivors, eh?

59 posted on 06/17/2023 6:39:20 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: Libloather

Parkour enthusiast


60 posted on 06/17/2023 6:42:36 AM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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