Posted on 05/17/2005 5:14:16 PM PDT by kingattax
(AP) A Norwegian man was killed after jumping from the Eiffel Tower when a parachute he was wearing got stuck on an upper deck of the monument, officials said Tuesday.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the man planned to film his jump as part of publicity for a Norwegian clothing brand, police said.
The man, 31, entered the tower with a hidden parachute and a helmet that had a small video camera attached to it, said the official at Paris' police headquarters, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
Upon reaching the tower's 380-foot second deck, the man jumped. Investigators believe his parachute got caught in the tower's structure, detaching it from his body.
He continued his fall without the parachute, crashing onto the 182-foot-high first deck of the famous Paris landmark, according to police and an official for SNTE, the company that manages the Eiffel Tower.
Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne Lene Sandsten said the man was Norwegian.
Hundreds have died at the tower, which is 1,063 feet tall with its flagpole, since it opened as a star attraction of the Paris World Fair of 1889.
Most of the deaths were suicides. The first was reportedly a printer's mechanic who hanged himself from the tower's north pillar in 1891, bequeathing his clothes to builder Gustave Eiffel in his will.
The tower also has long attracted daredevils. A British couple successfully parachuted from the top deck in 1984. A New Zealander bungee-jumped off the second floor in 1987.
Franz Reichel, a mustachioed Austrian tailor, was killed leaping from the first deck in 1912 to test a tent-like parachute coat he had invented. He is said to have died of fright before hitting the ground.
The Eiffel Tower (Photo: CBS/AP)
I'm thinking we may have a "Darwin Award" winner here!
"...as part of publicity for a Norwegian clothing brand..."
Clothing tag line..."Our clothes are baggy enough to conceal just about anything, but they don't slow you down"
Just remember ,
it's not the fall that kills you,
It's the sudden stop !
The French army, terrified by the invading force, surrendered en masse.
I`m suprised the pavement didn`t surrender and move out of the way.
Another attempt to disprove the theory of gravity fails.
SeeBS sure must think we're a bunch of hicks if they feel the need to include a photo of the Eiffel tower.
...now if the photo included a plummeting Norwegian, that would be news.
another "Hold ma beer...." moment
He is said to have died of fright before hitting the ground. ..........
Says who?!
Norwegian wood
32.2 feet per second per second; it's not just a good idea...
IT'S THE LAW!
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."~Mark Twain
Given the option, I would heed Twain's advice
Let's not forget Grace Jones, who in the worst James Bond movie, lept off the tower and landed in obscurity.
You've heard of Osh Kosh B'gosh overalls?
This must have been for Ooof-dah jeans.
The tower's design isn't Norweigian parachute-jumper accessible: can Norway sue or declare war on France?
That's the most danger a European national parachutist has ever faced dropping into France.
Somtimes, some of us need more excitement than the rage brought on to us, reading FreeRepublic, and finding out the latest shannanigans of liberals.
Some of us also need to burn a little more energy, than just pushing buttons on our keyboard with our fingers, and straining our eyes to read the monitor.
Sometimes we all need to get more exercise than jumping to conclusions. :)
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