Sky's thrilling — and deadly

For sky aficionados, the unexplainable need to fly supersedes warnings of danger, news of accidents and fear of heights.

Scott Stephenson of Orem died Monday from injuries sustained in a weekend skydiving accident in Tooele County. On April 17, three flight instructors were killed when their plane crashed west of the Provo Airport. And a Lehi man died when his ultralight plane crashed near Eagle Mountain on April 5.

But the accidents aren't stopping hard-core flying folk.

Leszek Stachyra, a Provo resident who had skydived with Stephenson, said the news of his friend's death was upsetting, but he does not intend to quit the sport.

"You take another jump. That's all you can do. You can't really look back, you have to learn," he said. "With Scott, like everyone says, it's an accident. Just one of those fluke things that happens. A bad move at a bad time, especially at the speed they were going."

And for Brian Wallace, who has made 5,300 jumps since he began skydiving in 1980, being in the air is a necessary part of living.

"You could sit at home and be safe but maybe die of cholesterol, eating potato chips and watching TV. It's just the excitement and fun of being out there," he said. "Everybody has their opinions, but my response is, I think that you've got a death sentence when you're born, so you've got to be crazy to stay on the ground, too."

Wallace, who runs Skydive Ogden, has never broken a bone in any of his jumps, although he has twisted his ankle several times.

And his key to sky safety?

"It might sound real simple but just be real careful. Sometimes people get killed when they're starting to show off a bit. Know your equipment and limitations and just take all the safety precautions you can," he said.

Steve Mayer, owner of Cloud 9 Soaring Center, a Draper paragliding business, was quick to point out the differences between paragliding and skydiving. But his tip for accident prevention matched Wallace's.

"The best way to stop them is proper instruction," he said. "Eighty percent of accidents occur with people who are not properly certified."

The U.S. Parachute Association reported 33 skydiving deaths in 2002. Skydiving fatalities in the past 10 years peaked in 1998 with 44 deaths reported. The U.S. Hang Gliding Association received 80 reports of paragliding incidents and accidents in 2001.

"There are conditions when we obviously shouldn't fly, but there are more advanced guys that are flying outside the envelope," Mayer said. "They've been comfortable for so long that they decide to push the envelope."

Susan Horstman, chief flight instructor for Great Western Aviation, said many pilots have a similar problem. Plane crashes are caused by "a mixture of different things," she said, but often "nothing has gone wrong for a long time, so (pilots) are not as careful as they once were." Horstman said it is important for pilots to be well-prepared before flying, go through personal checklists and continue their education.

"You can't hop in an airplane like you hop in a car," she said. "You can't pull over in an airplane to the nearest cloud."

As with flying, Wallace said, "Sometimes egos get in the way" of safe skydiving. But, he said, "Sometimes accidents just happen."

Describing the need for caution in skydiving, Stachyra said, "The whole world stops, and it turns into three minutes of fast movie action, and you've just got to play it right. I try not to push myself, because when you start pushing the envelope, things get out of hand, and the environment you're in starts controlling you."

Stephenson, 23, was the last in a group of seven to jump from a plane Sunday evening in Erda. He apparently miscalculated his dive and hit another skydiver at 90 mph when attempting to join the group in a circular formation at about 9,500 feet.

Both Stephenson and Mark Lezondo, 53, were able to open their parachutes, but Stephenson was unconscious before he hit the ground, according to Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park. He was pronounced dead about 3 a.m. Monday at University Hospital. "I really didn't know what to say. We skydived together, and he was a really nice kid. What do you say?" Stachyra said. "Especially in the sport, I mean, people get hurt -- it's an extreme sport. There's not very much forgiveness in the air, and of course, we're not perfect. Sometimes we make a mistake. Sometimes we get away with it, sometimes it gets really ugly. It just feels like somebody's there one moment, and then another moment he's gone."

Mayer and Stachyra both pointed out that the majority of serious skydiving accidents occur among experienced divers, who take more risks and fall at faster speeds for a longer time than beginning jumpers.

"The sport is really pushing safety, but accidents happen when you push the envelope," Stachyra said.

Despite the risks, though, these fliers say they're staying in the sky.

"For me, it's finding myself in a really hostile environment, and being able to prevail or even control it. . . . It's just a pure, pure feeling of being able to fly," Stachyra said.

Horstman added, "Just like anything, it's a sense of adventure -- something out of the ordinary that people can't do on the ground. People always talk about the freedom of flight."

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