This never crossed my mind...

[jimshu]

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5580 ... free-fall/

Yeah.Wow that guy is so lucky.
But when skydiving over the desert in Namibia, this thought was pushed waaaaaay back out of my mind.!

[thecakeisalie]

Sounds like the victim had some experience under his belt, which should have given him enough foresight to know not to trust somebody else with your life when you're shooting towards earth at 120mph!

There are red flags all over the place here: 1) A 2000m fall? Sounds more like a BASE jump than a skydive. I would expect at least 3000m. 2) Another skydiver was supposed to give him a signal? What happens if the other skydiver has trouble/blacks out/etc? The victim didn't have his own altitude gauge? 3) How about backup systems? Secondary chute that goes off at a minimum altitude?

If he had disabled secondary systems and was relying on the other diver to signal him because he was too busy filming, than he was asking for trouble. Very lucky indeed.

Also, kudos to you Jim, that takes some guts to do that in Namibia. I can't imagine safety regulations are carefully monitored...