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Year 19 • 21 April 2015 | Tel. 023 626 5212
Luke Godfrey
The helmet and camera are picked up.
The GoPro footage when everything was still intact.
Luke Godfrey loses his helmet.
A first look at the device.
The camera is passed around for inspection.
Parachuter’s lost helmet goes viral HILDERINE SCHRÖDER
A group of local men unexpectedly made it onto computer screens worldwide after picking up a GoPro camera that had “fallen from the sky” and survived to record their bemused reactions. The story began when Luke Godfrey, from Cape Town, lost his helmet, equipped with a GoPro camera, when he had to cut away from a malfunctioning main parachute at the Robertson Skydive Club. The video of the incident, later uploaded to Youtube, spread like wildfire, leading to television interviews not only by local media, but also media houses in
Australia, Italy and the United States. In the video Godfrey, a member of the Robertson Skydive Club, can be seen cutting away from his main parachute. In the process, he told the Gazette, his helmet, which also has a cut-away, also came off. While he drifted safely towards the ground under his reserve parachute, his helmet continued tumbling down landing in the grass at a nearby sport stadium. The helmet hardly touched ground before it was picked up by a group of young men. Shortly after landing, Godfrey, along with other members of the club, started searching for his lost equipment. Susan Watts, a fellow member, stumbled up-
on the group after a few children pointed her in their direction. At first, she told the Gazette, they denied that they had it. She could see, however, that they were hiding something. After chatting to them for a while, the group eventually admitted that they had the helmet and demanded R1 000 for its return. Watts called another club member who quickly brought the money they requested. Although it doesn’t happen very often that a skydiver loses a helmet, it can happen more often that they need to cut away from a malfunctioning parachute. “We need to create awareness in the community that they should return these items to the club. It’s of no use for anyone who picks it up,
but very valuable to a skydiver.” According to Pam Russell, chairman of the Robertson Skydiving Club, the club plans a flyer campaign giving information and asking people to return equipment for a reward. Meanwhile Godfrey is still surprised by the stir the video created. He did another jump shortly after his first mishap. It was only after viewing the recording after that jump that the footage was discovered. “Our jaws dropped,” he laughs. He never expected the reaction the video caused. “I’m just glad nobody got hurt. Had the helmet hit someone on the ground it could have caused serious injury.” By the time of going to press, the video already had 353 131 hits.
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