If you’ve noticed, athletes are dumping footage all over social media to keep us entertained these days. That’s one of the good things. One of the not-so-good things? Some of it will scare the shit out of you. Like this footage of skydiver Ben Pigeon. Ben was pulling mid-air maneuvers with three other friends when one of his partners hits him and knocks him out cold.
His buddy, who isn’t identified in the post but whose name is Andy Locke (as identified in the comments on Facebook), sees Ben not moving (his limp body gives him away) and tracks him down mid fall to pull his shoot. “I am posting this because I am bored,” Pigeon wrote, “but also to promote the 6 foot rule [sic]. If we had used the 6’ rule during this jump. A femur would not have connected with my head at 200 plus mph. But then again, following the 6 foot rule, a fellow jumper would not have been allowed to pull my chute when I was knocked unconscious at 10,000 feet.”
That means stay home during the COVID outbreak but also that it doesn’t make sense in this situation. In truth, we’re nothing without real human interaction. The miracle of it all is that Pigeon was able to find his landing spot: For nonskydivers, finding the drop zone can be difficult. Especially at this dz because it is all farmland, and it all looks the same. You have to identify roads to figure out where you are. I was so concussed that lost 3 days of memory. How I found the drop zone is beyond me. I could have dropped into power lines or the highway. Not only did I find it. I flew a perfect student pattern, but did not have the strength to flare (meaning the landing hurt also). I was so out of it. When first asked if I was ok, I said ‘what do you mean I just got out of my tent,’ and then pointed to my parachute. I am not saying Jesus took the toggles, but someone looked after me that day.
This jump was from 2014. Here’s another angle:
