Here's news from CNN.com this morning... http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html.
(CNN) -- A man went over Niagara Falls and survived Wednesday afternoon (3/10/2009), one of the few people to ever survive the plunge unprotected, authorities said.
The man was seen entering the icy water just above Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side, and apparently jumped in about 2:15 p.m, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Fire Chief Lee Smith said.
Smith said the unidentified man was in the near-freezing water for "40-plus" minutes before he was rescued by Niagara Parks Police and Niagara Falls firefighter Todd Brunning.
Brunning, who was tethered to shore, swam about 60 meters (nearly 200 feet) into the river and was able to get hold of the man and bring him to shore.
Niagara Parks Police initially used a helicopter from a private company, Niagara Falls Helicopters, to attempt a rescue of the man. When that failed, they used the wind from the chopper's rotors to push the man closer to shore, Smith said.
He said the man was "being rotated in a cyclic fashion" by the river's very strong currents.
The man did not aid in his rescue, officials said, though it was not immediately clear whether he was physically unable to or he did not want to do so.
Niagara Falls Fire Capt. Dave Belme said the man was not wearing any clothes when he was rescued, but he added that it's not unexpected for a person to lose things while being washed down the falls.
The man's "chances of survival without the quick response would be lessened," Smith said.
All of the agencies train for situations like this, he said, and they are put to the test about a dozen times a year. Still, he called Wednesday's rescue "amazing."
Man survives plunge over Niagara Falls --
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Mark J
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More coverage and pics from The Buffalo News... http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/605097.html
Man survives plunge over Horseshoe Falls
Rescuers overcome victim’s resistance to pluck him from river
By Aaron Besecker and Denise Jewell Gee
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — The man who jumped into the Niagara River and washed over the the Horseshoe Falls Wednesday afternoon resisted his rescuers until a city firefighter was able to snatch him out of the cold, deep waters of the Lower Niagara River as the man lapsed toward unconsciousness.
Naked and despondent, with a gash on his head, the man was caught in a slow-moving circle of frigid water below the falls when rescuers made it down a steep embankment shortly after 2 p. m. to a point where Firefighter Todd Brunning could enter the water.
By that point, the man had spurned the help of two people who had hovered above him in a helicopter.
“He wasn’t cooperative,” said the pilot, Ruedi Hafen, owner of Niagara Helicopters. “He didn’t try to be helpful. We had a sling on him and he got out of it.”
So Hafen channeled a brisk wind through his helicopter’s propellers to push the man back toward shore.
Just at that moment, Brunning, dressed in a hooded dry suit and tethered to the ground, plunged into the water near the Ontario Power Generating building and swam about 50 feet to grab hold of the man.
If the water had pushed him in any other direction, the man may not have been pulled to safety, Niagara Falls Fire Services Chief Lee Smith said later.
“If he had drifted down, we would have had no access whatsoever,” Smith said. “It’s just fortunate he was stuck in that cycle.”
Authorities had not identified the man as of late Wednesday. They said he jumped into the upper rapids above the Horseshoe Falls in Canada and was in the water for more than 40 minutes. The force of the falls stripped him of his clothing on his 167-foot plunge, his rescuers believe.
The man suffered a head injury and hypothermia and was taken to Greater Niagara General Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition late Wednesday.
Only two others are known to have survived a plunge over Niagara Falls without a barrel or a protective device in the last 50 years.
“It’s amazing that he survived that long,” Smith said. “He was very close to not being able to keep himself afloat anymore.”
Judy MacPherson, of Thorold, Ont., was walking above the falls during the commotion.
“It was quite an extraordinary rescue,” MacPherson said. She said she first thought it was a dead body floating in the water below, but then realized firefighters were pulling a live man to safety.
“That’s astounding that he lived,” MacPherson said.
A tourist who saw the man hop a fence and jump into the water reported the incident by calling 911 at about 2:11 p. m., Smith said.
Firefighters thought they were headed to Table Rock to help a heart attack victim when they rushed to the brink of the Horseshoe Falls, but it didn’t take long to get a true picture of the emergency. New information came in shortly after that someone had entered the water.
“Generally, there’s nothing for us to do at that point.” Smith said.
This rescue was different.
Niagara Parks Police were able to guide firefighters to the Maid of the Mist driveway up to the power building, where they could enter the water.
The river’s temperature was just above freezing, and ice floes could be seen in the area, Smith said.
The Horseshoe Falls is 167 feet high and the pool of water beneath it is equally as deep.
“It’s pretty remarkable really that he could survive in the icy waters, especially after going over the falls. . .,” Niagara Parks Police Chief Doug W. Kane said. “To survive that long in the icy waters is almost unheard of.”
Firefighters said they do not know why the man jumped into the water, but they believe he did not want to survive.
“Normally, if someone knowingly jumps in, they’re trying to end their lives,” said Smith, the fire chief. “They deserve to be saved as much as anybody.”
Brunning said firefighters train twice a year for water rescues. When he entered the water, dressed in a “dry suit,” a helmet and a personal flotation device, cold water and mist began to spray into his face.
Niagara Falls Fire Services, along with Niagara Parks Police, Niagara Helicopters and Niagara Emergency Medical Service, have been training together for coordinated gorge rescue efforts for about five years.
“It paid off,” Brunning said.
Brunning said the man was “semi-conscious” and his muscles were rigid when he reached him in the water.
Eight firefighters were on shore to help pull Brunning and the man to the edge, where they could pull the man into a yellow basket and up a steep embankment.
A U. S. man, Kirk Jones, became only the second person to survive plunging over the Horseshoe Falls without a barrel on Oct. 21, 2003, in an apparent stunt that one longtime Niagara River rescuer called a “one-in-a-million chance.”
The first person pulled from the river alive after going over the cataract was Roger Woodward, who survived a fall over the Horseshoe Falls after the boat he was in capsized in the Upper Niagara River in 1960, when he was 7 years old. He was wearing a life vest.
The parks police High Angle River Team, about 20 firefighters, and several ambulance personnel and police officers took part in Wednesday’s rescue, along with Niagara Helicopters, a private Niagara Falls, Ont. company. Hafen owns the company and is a member of the High Angle River Team.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Man survives plunge over Horseshoe Falls
Rescuers overcome victim’s resistance to pluck him from river
By Aaron Besecker and Denise Jewell Gee
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — The man who jumped into the Niagara River and washed over the the Horseshoe Falls Wednesday afternoon resisted his rescuers until a city firefighter was able to snatch him out of the cold, deep waters of the Lower Niagara River as the man lapsed toward unconsciousness.
Naked and despondent, with a gash on his head, the man was caught in a slow-moving circle of frigid water below the falls when rescuers made it down a steep embankment shortly after 2 p. m. to a point where Firefighter Todd Brunning could enter the water.
By that point, the man had spurned the help of two people who had hovered above him in a helicopter.
“He wasn’t cooperative,” said the pilot, Ruedi Hafen, owner of Niagara Helicopters. “He didn’t try to be helpful. We had a sling on him and he got out of it.”
So Hafen channeled a brisk wind through his helicopter’s propellers to push the man back toward shore.
Just at that moment, Brunning, dressed in a hooded dry suit and tethered to the ground, plunged into the water near the Ontario Power Generating building and swam about 50 feet to grab hold of the man.
If the water had pushed him in any other direction, the man may not have been pulled to safety, Niagara Falls Fire Services Chief Lee Smith said later.
“If he had drifted down, we would have had no access whatsoever,” Smith said. “It’s just fortunate he was stuck in that cycle.”
Authorities had not identified the man as of late Wednesday. They said he jumped into the upper rapids above the Horseshoe Falls in Canada and was in the water for more than 40 minutes. The force of the falls stripped him of his clothing on his 167-foot plunge, his rescuers believe.
The man suffered a head injury and hypothermia and was taken to Greater Niagara General Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition late Wednesday.
Only two others are known to have survived a plunge over Niagara Falls without a barrel or a protective device in the last 50 years.
“It’s amazing that he survived that long,” Smith said. “He was very close to not being able to keep himself afloat anymore.”
Judy MacPherson, of Thorold, Ont., was walking above the falls during the commotion.
“It was quite an extraordinary rescue,” MacPherson said. She said she first thought it was a dead body floating in the water below, but then realized firefighters were pulling a live man to safety.
“That’s astounding that he lived,” MacPherson said.
A tourist who saw the man hop a fence and jump into the water reported the incident by calling 911 at about 2:11 p. m., Smith said.
Firefighters thought they were headed to Table Rock to help a heart attack victim when they rushed to the brink of the Horseshoe Falls, but it didn’t take long to get a true picture of the emergency. New information came in shortly after that someone had entered the water.
“Generally, there’s nothing for us to do at that point.” Smith said.
This rescue was different.
Niagara Parks Police were able to guide firefighters to the Maid of the Mist driveway up to the power building, where they could enter the water.
The river’s temperature was just above freezing, and ice floes could be seen in the area, Smith said.
The Horseshoe Falls is 167 feet high and the pool of water beneath it is equally as deep.
“It’s pretty remarkable really that he could survive in the icy waters, especially after going over the falls. . .,” Niagara Parks Police Chief Doug W. Kane said. “To survive that long in the icy waters is almost unheard of.”
Firefighters said they do not know why the man jumped into the water, but they believe he did not want to survive.
“Normally, if someone knowingly jumps in, they’re trying to end their lives,” said Smith, the fire chief. “They deserve to be saved as much as anybody.”
Brunning said firefighters train twice a year for water rescues. When he entered the water, dressed in a “dry suit,” a helmet and a personal flotation device, cold water and mist began to spray into his face.
Niagara Falls Fire Services, along with Niagara Parks Police, Niagara Helicopters and Niagara Emergency Medical Service, have been training together for coordinated gorge rescue efforts for about five years.
“It paid off,” Brunning said.
Brunning said the man was “semi-conscious” and his muscles were rigid when he reached him in the water.
Eight firefighters were on shore to help pull Brunning and the man to the edge, where they could pull the man into a yellow basket and up a steep embankment.
A U. S. man, Kirk Jones, became only the second person to survive plunging over the Horseshoe Falls without a barrel on Oct. 21, 2003, in an apparent stunt that one longtime Niagara River rescuer called a “one-in-a-million chance.”
The first person pulled from the river alive after going over the cataract was Roger Woodward, who survived a fall over the Horseshoe Falls after the boat he was in capsized in the Upper Niagara River in 1960, when he was 7 years old. He was wearing a life vest.
The parks police High Angle River Team, about 20 firefighters, and several ambulance personnel and police officers took part in Wednesday’s rescue, along with Niagara Helicopters, a private Niagara Falls, Ont. company. Hafen owns the company and is a member of the High Angle River Team.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt
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I'd be more scared of the cold than the plunge. 
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Matt
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did they get a name and story from this guy yet?
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Mark J
- Senior
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- Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:35 am
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Here's the story, Matt, from the Buffalo News... http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/606497.html
Niagara Falls jumper saved by luck and circumstance
Man joins short list of leapers who lived
By Nancy A. Fischer and Denise Jewell Gee
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — A 30-year-old man from western Ontario is the first person in at least a century to have tried suicide by plunging over Niagara Falls — and lived to tell the tale.
About 5,000 bodies have been recovered below the Falls since 1850, according to Paul Gromosiak, an author and unofficial Niagara Falls historian who is researching a book about daredevils and others who have been swept down the world’s most famous waterfalls.
“People all want to know, ‘How many people have jumped, and how many have survived?’ ” he said Thursday.
It’s impossible to know an exact figure because many people are never found, said Gromosiak, who lives on the American side of the falls and came up with his approximation using published reports dating to the mid-1800s.
A small number have survived their encounter with the falls, a very small number, he said, but none who tried to kill themselves during their plunge — until Wednesday afternoon.
“There are very few rescues at the falls,” Ontario Parks Police Chief Douglas W. Kane said. “Most of them are recoveries. That’s what is so amazing about this. And what’s really even more amazing is that he is expected to make a full recovery.”
The man jumped into the water above the Horseshoe Falls shortly after 2 p. m. Wednesday, and plunged down the 167-foot torrent of water. He ended up in the waters below for more than 40 minutes before a Niagara Falls firefighter tethered to the shore swam out and pulled him to safety.
The man suffered a head injury and hypothermia, and ended up at Hamilton General Hospital. His condition was upgraded from critical to stable on Thursday, said parks police, who would not provide the man’s name at the request of his family.
Kane said the man will not be charged, unlike after a similar rescue in 2003 of U. S. resident Kirk Jones. That’s because Wednesday’s case was definitely an attempted suicide, which does not violate Ontario law, he said.
Jones claimed he was suicidal but Ontario parks police learned shortly after his rescue that he had a camera at the scene and had talked with friends and family beforehand about jumping as a stunt. Jones was fined $3,000 for criminal mischief and performing a stunt, and banned from Ontario parks property along the Niagara River. He also was ordered to pay $1,400 toward his rescue.
The man who survived Wednesday joins Jones and Roger Woodward as the only people in the last 50 years to go over Niagara Falls without a barrel or other contraption and survive, Gromosiak said. Woodward, then 7 years old, survived an accidental plunge wearing only a life vest in 1960, after his boat capsized in the upper Niagara River.
Since 1850, 15 people have tried to go over the falls in various devices—including barrels, jet skis and kayaks — and 10 have survived, Gromosiak said.
Men are much more likely than women to jump into the waters above the falls, he said. About 4 p. m. on Mondays is the most common time, September the most common month.
David Pendergast, a University at Buffalo professor of physiology and biophysics, said there were several points during the Canadian man’s ordeal in which factors had to have been just right for him to survive.
The first was where the man entered the water. A tourist saw him hop a fence and jump into the swift rapids near Table Rock above the Horseshoe Falls, firefighters said.
While there are some areas where water above the falls moves slowly, like the brink of the American Falls, water of the Horseshoe Falls is about 4 or 5 feet deep, Pendergast said.
“You’d probably go right over the edge and then plummet to the bottom, being sucked by gravity and also pushed by the waterfall toward the bottom,” Pendergast said. “The first step of luck would be where he went over and then where he landed at the bottom of the falls.”
Water in the upper Niagara River, which is controlled by an international agency, rushes over the falls in March at a minimum rate of 374,025 gallons per second.
The fate for many who go over the falls comes at the bottom.
If jumpers don’t hit the large rocks at the base, they can be pinned by the tremendous currents below the falls.
“They literally get sucked under water and they’re held down there by these undertows,” said Pendergast, the director of UB’s Center for Research and Education in Special Environments. “You can only hold your breath for a couple of minutes.”
The area below the Horseshoe Falls — although it doesn’t have as many visible rocks as the piles of boulders below the American Falls — has a steep slope that leads to a deep pool of water that reaches 185 feet deep in places.
Firefighters have said the man was then lucky to get caught in a large, slow-moving eddy — a whirlpool of water — that kept him from being swept further down river under a thick layer of ice—an ice bridge — still visible under the Rainbow Bridge.
“He was just very fortunate of where he went in and where he popped up to get in a surface flow of water that moved him in a place where they could actually get him,” Pendergast said. “Because if he’d been in much longer, certainly, he would have died of hypothermia, if not drowning.”
U. S. Coast Guard officials are responsible for most recoveries and see eight to 10 bodies wash up each year in Youngstown. Generally, bodies from both sides of the border end up at their doorstep because of the river current.
“We do three to four rescues a year [below the falls] and do everything we can to save someone,” New York State Parks Maj. Vincent Iacovitti said, even if, like the Canadian man, they don’t want to be saved. “We do reach out any way we can.”
Niagara Falls jumper saved by luck and circumstance
Man joins short list of leapers who lived
By Nancy A. Fischer and Denise Jewell Gee
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — A 30-year-old man from western Ontario is the first person in at least a century to have tried suicide by plunging over Niagara Falls — and lived to tell the tale.
About 5,000 bodies have been recovered below the Falls since 1850, according to Paul Gromosiak, an author and unofficial Niagara Falls historian who is researching a book about daredevils and others who have been swept down the world’s most famous waterfalls.
“People all want to know, ‘How many people have jumped, and how many have survived?’ ” he said Thursday.
It’s impossible to know an exact figure because many people are never found, said Gromosiak, who lives on the American side of the falls and came up with his approximation using published reports dating to the mid-1800s.
A small number have survived their encounter with the falls, a very small number, he said, but none who tried to kill themselves during their plunge — until Wednesday afternoon.
“There are very few rescues at the falls,” Ontario Parks Police Chief Douglas W. Kane said. “Most of them are recoveries. That’s what is so amazing about this. And what’s really even more amazing is that he is expected to make a full recovery.”
The man jumped into the water above the Horseshoe Falls shortly after 2 p. m. Wednesday, and plunged down the 167-foot torrent of water. He ended up in the waters below for more than 40 minutes before a Niagara Falls firefighter tethered to the shore swam out and pulled him to safety.
The man suffered a head injury and hypothermia, and ended up at Hamilton General Hospital. His condition was upgraded from critical to stable on Thursday, said parks police, who would not provide the man’s name at the request of his family.
Kane said the man will not be charged, unlike after a similar rescue in 2003 of U. S. resident Kirk Jones. That’s because Wednesday’s case was definitely an attempted suicide, which does not violate Ontario law, he said.
Jones claimed he was suicidal but Ontario parks police learned shortly after his rescue that he had a camera at the scene and had talked with friends and family beforehand about jumping as a stunt. Jones was fined $3,000 for criminal mischief and performing a stunt, and banned from Ontario parks property along the Niagara River. He also was ordered to pay $1,400 toward his rescue.
The man who survived Wednesday joins Jones and Roger Woodward as the only people in the last 50 years to go over Niagara Falls without a barrel or other contraption and survive, Gromosiak said. Woodward, then 7 years old, survived an accidental plunge wearing only a life vest in 1960, after his boat capsized in the upper Niagara River.
Since 1850, 15 people have tried to go over the falls in various devices—including barrels, jet skis and kayaks — and 10 have survived, Gromosiak said.
Men are much more likely than women to jump into the waters above the falls, he said. About 4 p. m. on Mondays is the most common time, September the most common month.
David Pendergast, a University at Buffalo professor of physiology and biophysics, said there were several points during the Canadian man’s ordeal in which factors had to have been just right for him to survive.
The first was where the man entered the water. A tourist saw him hop a fence and jump into the swift rapids near Table Rock above the Horseshoe Falls, firefighters said.
While there are some areas where water above the falls moves slowly, like the brink of the American Falls, water of the Horseshoe Falls is about 4 or 5 feet deep, Pendergast said.
“You’d probably go right over the edge and then plummet to the bottom, being sucked by gravity and also pushed by the waterfall toward the bottom,” Pendergast said. “The first step of luck would be where he went over and then where he landed at the bottom of the falls.”
Water in the upper Niagara River, which is controlled by an international agency, rushes over the falls in March at a minimum rate of 374,025 gallons per second.
The fate for many who go over the falls comes at the bottom.
If jumpers don’t hit the large rocks at the base, they can be pinned by the tremendous currents below the falls.
“They literally get sucked under water and they’re held down there by these undertows,” said Pendergast, the director of UB’s Center for Research and Education in Special Environments. “You can only hold your breath for a couple of minutes.”
The area below the Horseshoe Falls — although it doesn’t have as many visible rocks as the piles of boulders below the American Falls — has a steep slope that leads to a deep pool of water that reaches 185 feet deep in places.
Firefighters have said the man was then lucky to get caught in a large, slow-moving eddy — a whirlpool of water — that kept him from being swept further down river under a thick layer of ice—an ice bridge — still visible under the Rainbow Bridge.
“He was just very fortunate of where he went in and where he popped up to get in a surface flow of water that moved him in a place where they could actually get him,” Pendergast said. “Because if he’d been in much longer, certainly, he would have died of hypothermia, if not drowning.”
U. S. Coast Guard officials are responsible for most recoveries and see eight to 10 bodies wash up each year in Youngstown. Generally, bodies from both sides of the border end up at their doorstep because of the river current.
“We do three to four rescues a year [below the falls] and do everything we can to save someone,” New York State Parks Maj. Vincent Iacovitti said, even if, like the Canadian man, they don’t want to be saved. “We do reach out any way we can.”
