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Skydiver Ivan McGuire said four heart-breaking words after realizing he jumped without a parachute
Ivan McGuire was a seasoned skydiver who left behind a tragic legacy when he filmed his final moments in the air.
Archived footage of Ivan McGuire’s last moments has recirculated online, leaving viewers privy to the final seconds before the skydiver realized he had made a fatal error. McGuire is said to have uttered four devastating words as the heartbreaking magnitude of the situation dawned on him.
Ivan McGuire’s last four words are tough to read
Saturday, April 2, 1988, was like any other day for McGuire. The veteran parachutist had embarked on more than 800 jumps in his career, and had already safely made the trip from the plane to the sky multiple times that day.
Yet, the 800 prior jumps became irrelevant as it dawned on McGuire, 35, that he had made a fundamental error – he had forgotten his parachute.
Upon realizing his fateful mistake, reports indicate that the last four words uttered by McGuire were “Oh my god, No!”.
Such knowledge only exists because McGuire was a cameraman, who happened to be filming a student and an instructor as they jumped alongside him. Although the footage of his final words is not publicly available, you can watch footage of the beginning of the jump here – but viewer discretion is advised.
Suspicious circumstances were quickly ruled out
In a now 36-year-old report from the Los Angeles Times, published in the aftermath of the incident, it was confirmed that local investigators had ruled out any suspicious circumstances.
It is believed that McGuire’s error was just that and no more. The investigators noted that they believed his temporary lapse of concentration may have stemmed from tiredness or the fact that he was focused on remembering his camera equipment.
It was not believed that McGuire purposely left his parachute behind, or that anybody had tampered with his equipment.
The plane’s pilot, Mark Luman, was questioned at the time on whether he had sufficiently checked that everyone on board had been checked to see if they had the correct equipment, although no arrests were ever made in connection to McGuire’s death.
The wife of the owner of the parachute center from which McGuire embarked, Nancy Fayard, said at the time: “No one was aware that he got on the plane without a parachute. Of course, no one knew or they would have stopped him.”
