Illinois Skydiver Dies In World War II Style Demonstration
An Illinois skydiver took a fatal jump at a World War II style demonstration earlier this week. Jim Yost, 69, was attempting to recreate a paratrooper jump in Oklahoma when the worst possible problem hit.
His parachute malfunctioned, sending him plummeting to his death.
Medical examiner Amy Elliot said that Yost’s death was a pure accident, indicating no foul play.
Yost, a funeral director from Champaign, Illinois, was taking part in a group jump to honor the veterans at a semi-annual school for skydiving to demonstrate World War II conditions for a parachute jump. What might seem ironic is that he was actually in a war, and it wasn’t until this incident that death caught him.
Yost did everything right for the demonstration, says Colonel Raymond Steeley, who disagreed with the medical team’s conclusion:
“What aggravates me is, Jim Yost would be severely (irked) right now by the implication that he was not doing something right. He did everything that he was supposed to have.”
Though the Illinois skydiver and Vietnam veteran had died of blunt force trauma injuries, medics at the scene said that Yost had suffered from cardiac arrest. This conflict in reports has spawned an investigation into what really happened, and whether there may have been foul play after all.
Yost was a retired U.S. Army captain who served in the 82nd Airborne Division’s 505th Paratroop Infantry Regiment during the Vietnam War, so a lack of experience was obviously not to blame.
Illinois funeral director dies after parachute malfunctions during WWII-style jump : http://t.co/V7ydDrnVvv
— Pioneer Press (@PioneerPress) July 24, 2014
Yost had successfully completed 36 jumps on active duty and ten with the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team who ultimately witnessed his death. After so many successful jumps in and out of war, it seems unusual that he would have a heart attack during his fatal fall.
Could the medical team who examined him have been lying about what killed Jim Yost? What could have been the reason behind the possible deception?
Was Illinois skydiver Jim Yost’s parachute malfunction an accident, or was the medical team or the school itself lying in their report?
[image via huffington post]
