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RIP Shane McConkey

2K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  SB4L 
#1 ·
I just heard that Shane McConkey died today. Whether you slide on one plank or two, this is a huge loss.

 
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#5 ·
From Wikipedia:

Death

On March 26, 2009, Shane was Ski-BASE jumping in Italy. He was working on a new line variation off the Val Scura couloir on Sassongher with JT Holmes and a film crew from Matchstick Productions. One of his skis failed to "quick release" after leaving the ground during his jump, sending him into an uncontrolled free-fall. The idea was to jump and continue with a squirrel-suit flight, but the single non-release sent him into a spin that didn't allow for parachute deployment.
 
#11 ·
He was wearing a wing suit. Not 100% sure on the dynamics of those, but there are a couple of things that probably contributed to this. In the video he does a double flip, but as soon as he comes out he throws his chute. With a wing suit, you have a bit more drag, so to fly it the skis need to eject. He was probably laid out when he pulled the release for the skis. One didn't come off, the wind drag hung him upside down and caused him to go into a death spin. He was not going to get out of the spin unless he got the ski to eject. Pretty much fucked. It really sucks and we lost a great.
 
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