Quebec, Canada- "Little Miracle"

[smiles 0]

Skydiver OK after storm yanks him 1,000m up

Patti Edgar
Edmonton Journal

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

A skydiver who was sucked into a thundercloud and landed unscathed has picked up the nickname "Little Miracle."
Montreal student Mathieu
Gagnon walked out of the Ottawa Hospital Monday morning, laughing at jokes
and promising to leap out of an airplane again soon.

Except for sore muscles, the 21-year-old was unharmed from a bizarre accident Sunday.

"This is something that we will be talking about in the skydiving world for
the rest of our lives," said Martin Audit, president of Paramax, a Gatineau, Que., skydiving company.

"He was in the black cloud with the lightning and everything," said Julie
Desjardins, a Paramax employee who tracked the near-disaster from the
ground.

"He's a very lucky guy."

But Gagnon, a skydiver with 20 other jumps under his belt, has refused to
talk about the accident for fear it will give people the wrong impression of his sport.

On Sunday afternoon, he was one of five experienced parachutists on board
Paramax's Cessna 182 as it climbed above the Gatineau Airport. Each had
signed a waiver and paid $32 for the jump.

Thunderstorm warnings had been issued for the region but local conditions
seemed safe, Desjardins said.

"We do not let them jump if there's a storm coming in. The tower will say:
'No, stop. Land with the plane.' The pilot will say the same also."

The go-ahead came because southerly winds were moving torrential rains and
high winds in the opposite direction, Desjardins said.

"The storm was about four kilometres away. It just suddenly turned, and it
was amazing. I had never seen that in my life. Ever."

Just before 5 p.m., the five men leapt out of the small plane about 2,000
metres above the ground. Within a minute, the winds had shifted, sending
dark clouds hurtling toward the jumpers.

The skydivers knew they were in trouble. But Gagnon, who had been the first
to open his parachute, was a few hundred metres above the others. He was the
only one sucked into a black cloud.

From the ground, Audit watched in panic as Gagnon disappeared.

For five minutes, Gagnon was missing. He later told Audit that he was
trapped in a black fog, hurtling upwards.

Gagnon checked his altimeter -- he had climbed 1,000 metres. He cut away his
main parachute and tumbled toward the ground until he was out of the clouds.

Then Gagnon opened his reserve parachute and drifted helplessly. About 15
minutes later, he landed on the south side of the Ottawa River, in Orleans,
Ont., about 25 kilometres south of the airfield where he was supposed to
touch down.

He ended up on a road a few kilometres from the river, and was jarred when
his chute snagged on a parked car, Desjardins said.

Area resident Ronald Wright heard a crash and found Gagnon in his driveway,
alert but unable to talk.

Back in Quebec, the four other parachuters had already landed -- all but one
a few kilometres away from the landing spot near the airport. One man broke
both his legs.

"It was the worst experience of their lives," Audit said. "When the big wind
catches you, you don't know if you are going to survive. They were crying
when they landed on the ground -- they were that happy to be alive."

© Copyright 2002 Edmonton Journal

Smiles.

eustress. : a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being.

[Iflyme 0]

We had a thread about just this topic a little while ago ... I can't imagine how bizarre it must be for this to happen ... thanks goodness the skydiver survived.

[Remster 30]

I dont have the reference for it, but something similar happened a few years ago, and if memory serves me right, that jumper was sucked much much much higher, didnt cutaway, and landed with some frostbite...

As for this story...

Quote

Then Gagnon opened his reserve parachute and drifted helplessly. About 15
minutes later, he landed on the south side of the Ottawa River,

15 minutes???? after gloing below the clouds?? lol... I'm sure some details of the story got confused....

Glad he's OK.. I guess the most traumatic part of the experience would have been to land in Ontario

Remster

[weid14 0]

so do ya still want to jump IN a thunderstorm (not you in particular, you in gerneral)????

[martinlaniel 0]

[15 minutes???? after gloing below the clouds?? lol... I'm sure some details of the story got confused.... ]

Dude, I was there, and it WAS fifteen minutes. This is not some sort of media-hyped information. What Mathieu (the guy in the cloud) told me was that he opened high (4000 ft), because he was checking out a new canopy. He got caught in the cloud and went from 3000 to 6000 in about 30 seconds, and that's when he decided to cut away. He had a round reserve, so was pretty much at the mercy of the wind. Actually, a square may or may not have been better...

What the article fails to mention is that of the five on the Cessna load, only one made the field, and aside from our friend with the ride in the cloud, the other three landed a mile from the DZ. One guy broke both legs on landing. This was sketchy all around.

Funny thing is that after they found the guy, the Ottawa cops got a call from a local store owner saying "er... a parachute with no one underneath it just landed in my parking lot". So the guy got his main back...

[Remster 30]

Thx for the feecback Martin

So was it a 15 minute TOTAL jump, of 15 minutes under his reserve? It just sounds strange that we freefalled down to below the cloudes to open his reserve (say 2000 feet?), and then still was sucked away and back up.. probably me not fully understanding the sequence of events!

Et chus bien content qu'il va bien...

Let us know how the guy who broke both legs is doing...

Rémi

Remster

[martinlaniel 0]

Remi,

If you speak french, you might want to check out [www.freefly.ca] Mathieu has a long post there followed by one from me describing what we saw from the ground.

As far as the guy with the broken legs, my wife and I went to visit him in the hospital last night, and he had gotten discharched! I guess he's feeling better. Sucks to have to casts on for the next few months though!

www.freefly.ca

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Anyone notice this part:

"The storm was about four kilometres away..."

Cutting it kind of close, were they?

[martinlaniel 0]

[Cutting it kind of close, were they? ]

Well, it was a low ceiling day, so we were doing hop n pops all day. This load was going to ceiling, which was at about 6 grand when they went up.

and all excuses aside, it was DAMN close. Actually, I called it a day, and took my name off the manifest for that load. The guy that broke his legs took my spot. Good call I think.

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Aye, sounds like the wisest decision out of the bunch. So when they said he landed near the river, they meant the Ottawa River? Don't think I would want to try landing in that puppy - pretty darn big and fairly brisk moving
Glad to hear that aside from some Medicare covered inuries, everyone made it down ok

• Quote

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

Good call I think

I think you're safe with that......

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

Aye, sounds like the wisest decision out of the bunch. So when they said he landed near the river, they meant the Ottawa River?

Yup, he landed in Orleans.... One of my friends saw it. They called me right away. Funny.

I was just browsing [url]www.freefly.ca[/ur] and just found out frankenotter is gonna be at skydive gananoque the july 1st weekend. Damn. That's a two minute drive from my dads cottage...

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[martinlaniel 0]

"near" the river is a relative term. He was about a mile inland. And you're right about the river. It's pretty wide, probably at least a mile where he crossed.

So in a way, the strong wind allowed him to clear it.

and although the river is fast and wide, the best reason to NOT land in it is that it's pretty polluted, and drinking someone else's sewage isn't the most pleasant of experiences.

Marz (the skdiver formely known as martinlaniel)

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Quote

I was just browsingwww.freefly.ca[/ur] and just found out frankenotter is gonna be at skydive gananoque the july 1st weekend.

Yup, and the next weekend it will be at Skydive Burnaby where it will stay for a month......

WOOOOHOOOO, just happens to be my home dz