Swansea Skydivers

Another picture from Chris's cache has reminded me of the time that we went parachuting to celebrate finishing our degrees. This, as you can see, was in the days before it became compulsory to dress up like a harlequin while participating in any extreme sport.

There is a sad postscript. Later that year all our instructors were killed when their helicopter crashed at Mannheim. I remember very well that it happened on the weekend that I had moved to London to join Fluor.

I found a report of the 20th anniversary tribute services. When you are learning to parachute you get taught detailed drills that you are supposed to follow in the event of trouble. Everyone was killed in Mannheim, but I remember being very moved at the time when I read that the crash investigations and the position of the bodies on the ground showed that no one had panicked and that they had attempted to get out in good order as the 'copter plummeted to the ground.