James E. Hickey was a 73-year-old BASE jumper from California who was in Twin Falls, Idaho attempting to jump off a 500-foot bridge, light his parachute on fire, and then deploy a secondary chute to safely land. The parachute immediately lit up in a ball of fire, and Hickey was apparently unable to deploy the backup parachute. The coroner's report listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma.A local pro BASE jumper, Sean Chuma, told the Twins Falls Times-News that Hickey was attempting a stunt that he had performed while skydiving before, which sounds even more insane.
73 is not a bad run, especially when you've done something like this at least twice, but it is all very crazy and very sad.When the stunt is done from a plane, a second person throws a flaming tennis ball to ignite the first chute, Chuma said. Fire accelerants are frequently used.