Teacher Gets 30 Years for Skydiving Murder

Plunged almost 400 feet to their deaths

(NEWSER) - Two skydivers died in California yesterday after their chutes collided when the two were about 300 to 400 feet in the air, causing them to plummet, reports the AP . The men were pronounced dead on the scene after emergency workers failed to resuscitate them. Patrick McGowan, 42, was an instructor with almost 20 years experience. "He had over 17,000 jumps," said the regional director of the US Parachute Association, who added that McGowan and Christopher Stasky, also 42, were training parachute instructors for the Canadian military. More»

Prosecutors say she sabotaged victim's chutes

(USER SUBMITTED) - A Belgian woman has gone on trial in Brussels, accused of murdering a love rival by sabotaging her parachute and causing her to plunge to her death. Els "Babs" Clottemans allegedly tampered with the main and reserve chutes of experienced skydiver Els Van Doran, who died after crashing into a garden in a Flemish town in November 2006, reports the Telegraph . More»

Skydiver makes short work of it at 14,000 feet

(NEWSER) - A German skydiver solved a Rubik's cube while in freefall 14,000 feet above the ground, the Telegraph reports. Ludwig Fichte, 29, sat in a rubber boat with a companion while solving the puzzle and gloating to friends—all in the 31.5 seconds before he deployed his parachute. Check out the video of Fichte's feat, but note that it's the dinghy that lends his achievement historical significance: "Solving the cube in freefall has been done before," he said. "But I am the first to do it in a rubber boat." More»

(AP) - George H.W. Bush celebrated his 85th birthday by skydiving over the coast of Maine today. The 41st president made a tandem jump with a member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team onto a landing zone near a church in Kennebunkport, where the family has a summer home. "I don't feel a day over 84," he told the Portland Press Herald. More»

Former president will jump near Maine home

(AP) - Former President George H.W. Bush plans to celebrate his 85th birthday Friday by making a parachute jump in Maine, where he has his summer home. An aide said today that Bush will make a tandem jump with a member of the US Army Golden Knights parachute team. Their landing zone is near a church in Kennebunkport. More»