Wing Suit Crash

[Siliconebobsquarepants]

Pretty compelling interview/recap of the wing suit crash story from 2016: http://topgunbase.ws/i-flew-my-wings...in-a-hospital/

He was not a complete goof, but apparently a young Navy pilot looking for off-duty kicks and progressed to base jump wing suit stuff rather quickly. Should have died though, complete miracle of survival. Nothing more recent on the guy, so he may have gone back to tamer recreational activities??

"Brandon Russell and I went to the scene looking for your GoPro. Dude, there was blood, tree carnage and debris everywhere. You flew through an 8” diameter tree trunk and snapped the top 20’ completely off. Your debris trail was almost 300’ long. How on earth do you explain being alive, let alone essentially unscathed?"

WOW . Thanks for posting this! Halfway thought the article after watching the video I couldn't help but think something as small as the Go Pro on his helmut could have created enough drag to drop enough to cause the crash . Altough if he turned left a little he could have cleared the trees. Seemed he was more concerned about making his LZ and not "flying the plane " so to speak.

[bigbog]

............He was not a complete goof, but apparently a young Navy pilot looking for off-duty kicks and progressed to base jump wing suit stuff rather quickly. Should have died though, complete miracle of survival. Nothing more recent on the guy, so he may have gone back to tamer recreational activities??

No, not goof...but young and addicted to the level of danger! ..to a sport where you're very vulnerable, even moreso than base jumping. Where you push the level of danger for the thrill of defeating that danger....that is addiction to the thrill of defeating danger. When that is even marketed through the new mobile media hardware/sw jewels with adjectives like "Extreme"...that addiction is hyped even more...y/n?

[jimk]

No, not goof...but young and addicted to the level of danger! ..to a sport where you're very vulnerable, even moreso than base jumping. Where you push the level of danger for the thrill of defeating that danger....that is addiction to the thrill of defeating danger. When that is even marketed through the new mobile media hardware/sw jewels with adjectives like "Extreme"...that addiction is hyped even more...y/n?

Anybody who flies military aircraft is a risk taker. The guys who get to fly the sexiest military aircraft usually got in that position because they had the highest test/intelligence scores. As we know from ski country avalanche deaths, even the smartest/most highly trained experts can be vulnerable to overestimating their abilities and rationalizing a poor risk.

Interesting thing about thrill seeking, extreme sports and addiction...many couch potato type folks might think that skiers/boarders who ski double black diamonds and inbounds extreme terrain (many on this forum) come under that category and have a death wish. Who here thinks they have a self-destructive adrenaline addiction comparable to a base jumping wing suiter? Probably no one. It's something you gradually progress to and just think of as good clean fun It's possible most base jumping wing suiters have the same mind set? I'm not sure. Interesting question.

[Siliconebobsquarepants]

Wing suit saves a life ?