esm@pyuxaa.UUCP (Liz Smith) (11/07/84)
This article is being forwarded for Liz Smith (pyuxaa!esm), who
doesn't currently have net access. Please do NOT send replies to
me, as I will (at best) ignore them. Send them to pyuxaa!esm.
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Regarding the article on the Sentinel Mark 2000 being grounded:
I know of at least one lawsuit pending against SSE related to
a misfiring Sentinel. A personal friend of mine suffered a
broken back when her Sentinel fired very close to the ground.
She was under a fully inflated square main, on final approach,
no radical turns or anything.
The Sentinel fired, sending out her reserve (round) which began to
inflate. For whatever reason (I did not personally witness the
incident), she did not cut away.
(Either she was too close to the ground, or the reserve began to
entangle with the main, or something.)
I assume that the action by SSE is a matter of covering their
behinds, although I am not privy to any company info.
I used to wear an FXC, but I removed that when I read somewhere
that they can be randomly activated, even when turned off. This
could be disastrous, expecially when in the middle of a canopy
stack (where I find myself occasionally).
I am all for AADs for students, especially since they aren't doing
any RW or CRW, and in *most* cases aren't jumping squares.
As for me, I am all for AADs, but I am going to wait until some
of the potentially dangerous bugs are ironed out.
--Liz Smith
(pyuxaa!esm, but only til 11/9)
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