A neighbor's surveillance video captured an SUV window's reflection, showing the skydiver descending before making a hard landing.
Detectives are investigating after a skydiver was found dead in the front yard of a residence near an airpark in Florida, authorities said Saturday.
A man outfitted in parachute attire and gear was located just before 12:30 p.m. on the lawn of a home in Titusville, about 50 miles east of Orlando, police said in a statement. The Titusville Fire Department responded and said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police on Monday identified the victim as 69-year-old Frederick C. Morello, of Ormond Beach, CBS affiliate WKMG reported.
The video shows a reflection in the back window of the SUV showing his chute was open when he came down, but he was moving fast and didn’t appear to be flaring (which further slows descent to a manageable landing speed). He might have become incapacitated in the air, or still impacted hard enough to kill him, but it wasn’t a “no chute full speed” type of situation, it seems
In the reflection it looks like he was turning super low. That's pretty dangerous since your body will swing out horizontal during the turn, and then you can slam into the ground as you swing back.
He shouldn't have been that close to homes in the first place though, I assume they must have really fucked up, and he didn't have a safe spot to land.
He shouldn’t have been that close to homes in the first place though
It's an airpark. It's like an HOA for pilots where the ammenities are taxiways from your house to the runway. Some will even have the hangar in their back yard where it can go straight onto the runway.
You can get a better idea searching airpark on google images.
Human bodies splatter less than you think, more akin to dropping a sausage on the floor. It bounces, and a piece or two might disconnect, but "guts and skin everywhere" is more a traumatic car accident thing.