Injured man among world's elite skydivers

The Whitefish skydiver who suffered severe injuries when he crashed prior to a University of Montana football game in Missoula on Saturday is one of just eight skydivers worldwide who have participated in all of the World Team’s record-setting jumps.

Blaine Wright, 53, is undergoing a series of surgeries at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for multiple fractures and faces a long recovery. The accident occurred when a wind gust blew the veteran jumper off course. He hit a concrete retaining wall outside the stadium, according to the Associated Press.

Wright is one of the Silvertip Skydivers who routinely skydive into the stadium prior to Griz games. He completed his first jump with Silvertip in 1974 when he was just 15.

Wright’s sister, Beth Cole of Missoula, told the Missoulian her brother was “positive and upbeat” as he prepared for the first of his surgeries. As badly as he was injured, it could have been worse, she said.

“There’s no brain involvement and he has the use of his legs,” Cole said. “But he survived this and he survived it intact.”

Wright’s longtime friend and famous skydiver B.J. Worth, also of Whitefish, said Wright was planning to join him in Florida for a 100-person sequential jump later this month.

“He had hurt himself in the last year, not seriously, so he hadn’t been jumping as much this year. He wanted to make sure he was fully healed,” Worth said of Wright’s planned participation in the Florida jump. “He’s a real good athlete and was looking forward to it.”

Wright was one of 400 skydivers with the World Team that set a record in 2006 in Thailand for the largest freefall skydiving formation. That record still holds.

“The World Team has done five records and he’s been on all five,” said Worth, who has organized many of the World Team’s record-setting jumps.

Only a few skydivers worldwide can lay claim to participating in that many record jumps.

The 2006 jump was the seventh world record Wright had participated in. The number of divers has steadily increased since the records began with 100 skydivers in 1986. From 100, it went to 120, then 200, 282, 300, 357 and now 400.

“I was on all the double-zero jumps. I’m one of eight people in the world who can say that,” Wright said in a 2006 interview with the Daily Inter Lake.

He described die-hard skydivers like himself as “odd birds.”

“It’s rare to say this [skydiving] is going to be my sport of choice,” Wright told the Inter Lake in 2006. “But there’s something very rewarding and exhilarating about flying your body.”

Wright also acknowledged the risks involved with such feats.

“Make no mistake about it, this is dangerous,” he said. “Even after 32 years, I go into it scared of being hurt.”

Wright also is an accomplished mechanical engineer and consultant.

“He’s a rocket scientist and he designs small-propellant rockets,” Worth said. “He’s a very brilliant guy, very unassuming. He’s an unsung hero, in my opinion.”

Worth said he was planning to shoot high-speed video next week for Wright as his friend tested a rocket engine he designed.

Wright doesn’t remember the trauma of Saturday’s accident, according to the Associated Press.

Witnesses said it appeared he realized he was not going to make it to the football field and might land in the crowd, so he swung around and tried to land outside the stadium. That split-second maneuver caused Wright to clip a tree and slam into a concrete retaining wall.

University officials say they are re-evaluating their relationship with the Silvertip Skydivers and the safety of the crowd-pleasing jumps.

“I know Silvertip wants to continue, and we will continue to look at all safety aspects and move accordingly,” UM Athletics Director Jim O’Day said in an Associated Press story.

The probable installation of field lighting on the stadium’s four corners by the 2012 football season could make it too difficult for skydivers to attempt landing in the stadium, O’Day said.

Worth, who also got his start in skydiving with Silvertip, said he’d hate to see UM pull the skydiving events as a knee-jerk reaction to Wright’s accident.

“They’ve been doing [the jumps] safely for so long,” Worth said. “They’re well within the reasonable safety parameters.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.