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It's been a while since I scared myself... so I went to the well for the answer...

Base jumping is a beast of a different dimension... I'm not even sure the USPA recognizes such a community of jumpers or their respective behavior (I tend to think that they don't)

Our subject jumpers violated the following minimum pack opening requirements because they exited from an aircraft and regulations are in place for such a circumstance. The pilot and surviving jumper may be subject to legal action because of this regulation. However, this is a first... a typical freefall exit from an a/c, morphing into a base jump... by involving the a/c, the jumpers and pilot brought themselves under the federales control...

2-1.07 MINIMUM OPENING ALTITUDES

Minimum container opening altitudes above the ground for skydivers are:

A. Tandem jumps–4,000 feet AGL

B. All students and A license holders–3,000 feet AGL

C. B license holders–2,500 feet AGL

D. C and D license holders–2,000 feet AGL

From a search about base jumping:

In the United States, skydiving from an airplane involves regulations set by the FAA, notably the requirement of an airplane jumper to carry two parachutes. Since BASE jumping does not involve an airplane, the FAA has no jurisdiction.

The undoing of at least one of these yahoos' was elementary...

The jumpers had to be on the same azimuth as the gorge was (at that particular point of planned descent and entry), AND they had to be in the exact center of the gorge as well...

An extreme example of their blunder would be if they approached the gorge at an angle 90 degrees to the center line of the gorge, which would mean that they would impact into the far side of the gorge's sidewall...

45 degrees carries a likely fatal outcome...

Entering the gorge, even one or two degrees off of the center line, could very well lead to a collision with the super structure of the bridge, depending on the distance and altitude to or from the bridge, as one enters it...

The Gold Team was killed along with the aircrew of the team's DC-3 near (I think) Silk Hope, NC, in 1973. Paul Albritton was aboard and killed in the crash. I met his widow Julie, a jumper as well, around 1978, at the local drop zone in Minier, IL. Paul's nephew or brother Rick, (it's been awile) served on the team with me in the 1980's. I was with the team during the years '1983-1985'.

Found this in searching for info. on the crash:

North Carolina, Douglas C-47, 3/8/73, 14 onboard, 14 killed, USAPT, crashed enroute to demo-catastrophic structural failure

In closing, I haven't found out yet, what the exit altitude was for this jump... because they used an a/c, they would've had to comply with the basic USPA and FAA regs. regarding minimum pack opening altitudes...