Death overshadows mass free-fall formation
Wahyoe Boedhiwardhana, The Jakarta Post/Denpasar, Bali
One-hundred and three skydivers from 16 countries managed to complete a mass freefall formation over Ngurah Rai International Airport here on Wednesday but the world record was overshadowed by the death of a participant, Theo P. Mandagi, later in the day.
Theo was fourth member of his family to die while skydiving after his three brothers were killed in a plane crash in 1986, an accident in which 11 people died.
After their second attempt of the day to break the world record for the most skydivers falling in formation from one transport plane was successful, all the participants made a victory jump to celebrate.
Led by top world skydiving instructor BJ Worth of the United States, the skydivers boarded the C-130H Hercules plane belonging to the Air Force at 6:07 p.m. local time (5:07 Jakarta time) just before sunset.
However, the festive mood turned somber after Theo's body was found by villagers with his parachute unopened.
"He (Theo) was found by locals with his parachute still closed, outside the perimeter to the south of the airport," Air Marshal Chappy Y. Hakim, the patron of the Indonesian Aerosport Association (FASI), said.
"He was taken to Sangla Hospital but was pronounced dead on the way," Chappy said.
The demise of Theo, 54, who is survived by two children and a wife, evoked painful memories of Indonesia's 1986 skydiving tragedy.
That aircraft, a light multi-engine Piper Navajo chartered by the 165 Sky Divers Club, crashed minutes after takeoff during a training session near Tangerang, 30 kilometers southwest of Jakarta.
Ten skydivers were killed including Theo's brothers, Roby, Alfred and Chris, and four foreigners. The pilot also died.
Theo was one of eight Indonesians involved in the world record attempt. Jumpers from Australia, Belgium, Britain, El Salvador, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Ukraine and United States also took part.
The jumpers, who had been attempting to break the record since Sunday, finally succeeded on Wednesday with 103 members who fell from a height of 18,000 feet at about 1:45 p.m. The parachutists formed a huge, six-bladed red-and-white propeller formation.
Thailand holds the current world record for the country to host the most skydivers completing a single formation -- 357 multinational jumpers who set the record in March.
Other countries that have hosted successful aerial formations of 100 or more parachutists are Russia, Slovakia, the U.S. and France. However these jumps used several planes while the Bali event used only one.
Nisfu Chasbullah, the chairman of the organizing committee, said the feat would be registered with the Indonesian Records Museum.
"We did manage the formation with 101 jumpers in the first sortie in the morning," Nisfu said.
Worth was relieved at the first sortie's success. "We did make it. We owed it to our Indonesian counterparts," he said.
However, he wanted to top the record and the second sortie saw 103 skydivers achieve the formation.
Upon landing, the skydivers were overwhelmed by their feat and could be seen excitedly congratulating each other.
This elation turned to sadness later in the day when they learned of Theo's death.