BASE Jumper Snags Chute, Falls to Death
Dangled for three hours waiting for a rope
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A British BASE jumper plummeted to his death on the Greek island of Zakynthos on Friday after his parachute snagged on a cliff face that eventually gave way. Jake Simkins, 41, phoned and texted his pregnant girlfriend to reassure her while he dangled for three hours on the rocks 200 feet above Navagio beach, a popular BASE jumping site. A Dutch tourist saw Simkins crash into the cliff and tried to help but couldn’t reach him. “I shouted out to him and he said he thought he had broken his leg,” Corne van der Eerden said. Local emergency responders are being criticized for failing to rescue Simkins in the hours before he fell, as no ropes or climbing equipment ever arrived at the scene.
Read more at BBC News