Lessons from 1964 fatality still worth learning

The 1964 death of SA jumper Don West, who went in while attempting a world record baton pass at Mallala, was headline news in Adelaide.

But for once the parachuting community couldn’t complain about sensationalist headlines or sloppy newspaper reporting.

The graphic story which recorded the tragedy in the following day’s edition of the afternoon daily newspaper The News, was written by Ted Harrison, the founding father of SA sport parachuting and a senior reporter on the then young Rupert Murdoch’s flagship publication – and Ted was on the jump! He even took the photograph which accompanied the page 2 news story on Monday, March 9, 1964, capturing a missed baton pass early in the descent.

It was a classic case of loss of height awareness and fixation on the relative work – a story which, even today, warrants the attention of current jumpers.
Here's the text of the full story.

Photo caption: Philip Edwards, of Myrtle Bank, shown missing the first pass with Catherine Williamson (left) who was first to jump. The pass was eventually made by Ted Harrison, who took this picture and gave the baton to Edwards a few seconds later.


Held on second too late


By Staff Reporter TED HARRISON, who took part in yesterday's parachute jump

Australian champion parachutist Don West, who was killed yesterday while attempting to set a new world baton-passing record, would be alive today if he had pulled his ripcord a second earlier.

He was second last to jump from a twin-engine aircraft 12,500 ft. above Mallala with a team of six other men and two women.

They were to have fallen for 60 seconds before opening their parachutes at 2,000 ft. after attempting to relay a baton from onto the other.

Count mistake?

Don delayed opening his parachute to gain a few extra seconds in free fall which enabled him to add one more baton pass to his team's score.

But it was a futile pass. It did not break the world record.
It only equalled it – a feat the team achieved a month ago.

Don West, Australian parachute champion, 1964. Photo from Cathy Williamson's book "Falling Free".

But in a sky filled with nine milling, free-falling bodies Don may have lost count of the number of passes and may have believed he was making the vital pass which would have captured a world record for Australia.

In an effort to make the extra pass, Don, 26 of Melbourne street, Darlington, fell below the usual parachute opening height of 2,000 feet to hand the baton to fellow parachutist Joe Larkin, 21, of Hectorville.

Another skydiver, Brian Brown, of Maylands, saw them inch agonisingly slowly towards each other as they continued to plummet at 120 m.p.h.
They appeared to be engrossed in the pass, oblivious to the nearness of the ground.

As soon as they succeeded in the pass, Larkin realised the danger and opened his main parachute immediately.

But it is thought that Don, being the more experienced jumper, with 280 jumps to his credit, decided to fall clear for a second or two longer.

Tangle risk

This would have eliminated the risk of their parachutes entangling if they had opened close together.

Knowing how close he was to death, he used his fast-opening reserve parachute instead of the main parachute. The main parachute is specially designed to open more slowly to reduce the opening shock.

But the extra second he delayed to fall clear cost him his life.
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