We're Taking A Dive

There are some folks that probably don't know this unless you're from around here, but my hometown of Mount Vernon, Missouri is a haven for skydiving activity. We have two skydiving companies that operate out of a small airport just outside of Mount Vernon, and they are Freefall Express and Skydive Missouri. Well, I really don't need to tell you this, but obviously, skydiving carries some risks. We found out the hard way this past weekend. According to the local weekly newspaper here in Mount Vernon, that being the Lawrence County Record, a skydiver by the nome of Larry Miller was killed when his parachute failed to open up. And this accident is just the tip of the iceberg. In April of this past year (I typed this on New Year's Eve 2008), an airplane being used for skydiving crashed just north of the Mt. Vernon airport, killing two people; and there have been three other skydiving accidents there since 1996. All these accidents have been connected with the aforementioned Freefall Express. My mom believes that somebody at Freefall Express need to supervise how they pack the skydivers' parachutes, and I agree with her...provided, of course, that Freefall Express doesn't get shut down by the FAA over this mess like they really ought to be. And besides, who wants to jump out of a perfectly good airplane in the first place?