A highly experienced skydiver who tragically died after jumping from a plane without a parachute had his final words captured on camera, vintage footage has shown. Ivan McGuire, 35, a veteran with over 800 successful jumps, was filming a student and an instructor during what would be his third and final jump of the day in April 1988 near the Franklin County Sports Parachute Centre in the United States.
The footage, recorded on a camera he was holding, showed the moments before his impact with the ground. As he reached to pull his parachute, the realisation struck, and his last words were heard: 'Oh my god, No!' His body was later discovered in woods approximately one and a half miles from the airfield.
Captain Ralph Brown, who reviewed the tape at the time, told UPI: 'It kind of appears he reached for his parachute and didn't have one.' He noted that the release for his parachute was on his right hip, and when his right hand went down, his left hand came into camera view, suggesting the fatal mistake.
Pilot Mark Luman was investigated to determine if he had checked McGuire's equipment, as per FAA regulation No. 105, which requires pilots to verify parachutes before jumps. However, foul play and suicide were ruled out, and it was concluded that McGuire inadvertently forgot his parachute, possibly mistaking the camera equipment for it due to similar weight and mass.
The incident, as reported by the Daily Star, remains a sobering reminder of the importance of safety checks in skydiving. McGuire's story has been revisited following a separate tragedy in 2022, when a skydiver died during a pre-game ceremony at a high school football game in Tennessee.
