This is the third New River Gorge Bridge fatality and the second to occur during a Bridge Day.

Steve is making his 3rd jump of the day using a skydiving pilot chute and skydiving bridle.
When told by the Bridge Day Jumpmasters this isn't the hot set up Steve replied, It's always worked before. He then launched cleanly for the planned 3-second delay.
He released the hand held pilot and the bridle fully extended.
However the pilot chute did not inflate (in the video it appears inverted mesh side out.)

To his credit Steve pulled his reserve ripcord handle in the bottom of his fifth second of freefall. but only received line stretch prior to impact.
This jump began the process whereby larger BASE pilot chutes and longer BASE bridles became mandatory at Bridge Day.

If you have a picture of this jumper please contact us