Parachutist Dies Jumping Off Bridge at W.Va. Festival

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va., Oct. 21 -- Thousands of people watched a participant jump to his death during West Virginia's annual Bridge Day festival Saturday when his parachute opened too late, a sheriff said.

Brian Lee Schubert, 66, of Alta Loma, Calif., died of injuries suffered when he hit the water 876 feet below the New River Gorge Bridge, officials said. After Schubert's body was recovered and taken to a funeral home, jumping at the festival resumed, Fayette County Sheriff Bill Laird said.

The fatality is the first since 1987 at the event, which typically draws an estimated 100,000 spectators and about 400 parachutists to the southern part of the state.

For one day a year, the National Park Service allows people to parachute off the world's second-largest single-span bridge to the river below. The bridge, a well-known icon in West Virginia, is featured on the back of the state's quarter.

To qualify to jump off the bridge, applicants must have skydived at least 50 times.

Laird said the jumping was allowed to continue because weather didn't appear to be a factor in the accident.

There were 804 jumps Saturday, officials said. Nearly 400 jumpers from 13 countries participated, and several minor injuries were reported.

In 1966, Schubert and a friend became the first people to jump from El Capitan, a nearly 3,000-foot-tall rock formation in California's Yosemite National Park.