Skydivers Survive Ninety Minute Ordeal In Lake Okeechobee

Look Before You Leap

by Dale Gumm

Publication Date: June 1998

Sunday, April 05, 1998, is a day that will live in infamy for 41-year-old Kentucky skydiver, Joe Morris. Visiting his mother in Florida, Morris decided to make a skydive at a nearby parachute center. What was supposed to be a dream vacation quickly turned into a nightmare.

It was a blue sky day with unlimited visibility and a warm, 15 knot breeze. Morris and ten other skydivers climbed aboard the King Air jump plane and rocketed to 15,000 feet above beautiful Lake Okeechobee. The jumpmaster spotted the load and gave the "exit" command. The skydivers leaped out the door into the wild blue yonder. However, for four of them it was a leap of blind faith.

Morris said freefall was awesome until about 6,000 feet when he noticed how far out over the lake he had exited. He wanted to deploy his parachute immediately, but couldn't do so until he checked for other skydiving traffic. There were ten other skydivers in freefall hurtling towards earth at 120 mph. The last thing he needed was a freefall or canopy collision.

He finally got his chute open around 3,500 feet and discovered he was two and a half miles from the drop zone. Worse, he was more than a half mile from shore with little chance of getting back to dry land. While Morris was flying around under canopy, he watched helplessly as three other jumpers splashed down in the water. He said he was thinking, "Someone really needs to help those people." According to Morris, none of the jumpers on that load were equipped with flotation gear. He had even asked for it at the drop zone before he got on the airplane. However, staff said they did not supply flotation gear for experienced jumpers.

Morris tried in vain to fly his parachute back to shore but knew he wasn't going to make it. He was really wishing he had some flotation gear. At 1,000 feet above the lake, he was searching for shallow water when he spotted something large moving across the surface. As he descended further, he realized it was an eight foot alligator patrolling his territory. Morris immediately steered his canopy in another direction, but with less than 30 seconds from touch down, he couldn't travel far enough in his mind.

When he hit the water, he went under briefly but kicked to the surface. He was wearing a jumpsuit and full-face helmet. He struggled to get the helmet, parachute harness and container off, but was finally able to get free. "I took on several large gulps of lake water in the process, but I was determined to save my gear. I thought I would be rescued right away." Joe desperately held on to the gear that had cost him over $3,000.00 thinking a rescue boat would be there in a couple of minutes.

After several minutes of trying to tread water and hold on to his equipment, Joe was getting exhausted. He knew he had to let go of his gear or he was going to drown. He had swallowed a lot of water from the chop or waves that were rolling across the lake.

At one point he tried to swim to a channel marker about 300 yards away. "I was so tired from trying to save my gear, I wore myself out. I just couldn't make it. No kidding. There I was. I thought I was going to die. I really thought at that point no one was going to rescue me," Morris reflected.

However, Morris remained calm and said to himself, "Today is my brother's birthday...I am not going to die on my brother's birthday." He started floating on his back and eventually found a position in the water with his feet towards the waves. "I found a nice stroke with minimal movement and got to know the rhythm and motion of the water. I learned how to keep my mouth above the water so I could breathe," Morris said.

He watched the jump plane fly over twice and drop skydivers as he floated around trying to save himself. He says he never saw any boats in the water. Morris was also very concerned about the fate of the other parachutists that landed in the lake. "I felt alone and isolated out there bobbing around. I couldn't see the other jumpers in the water, and didn't know if they were dead or alive. I knew this situation could be bad - really bad," Joe remarked.

Finally, after an incredible wait of nearly 90 minutes, a rescue boat from the local fire department appeared. The fireman's eyes were really big when he was pulling Morris into the boat. The fireman told him the eight foot alligator was very close to where Morris had been picked up out of the water. He also asked him if he had been snake bitten. There are numerous snakes that make the lake their home, including the venomous Cottonmouth.

Alligator attacks are not common, but they do occur. They will attack if cornered or to defend their nest. They also become more aggressive in April and May during their mating season. There have been eight documented fatalities, and alligator attacks average about 18 a year. Just last year, a three year old boy was snatched by an 11 foot, 340 pound alligator on the bank of a lake in Volusia County, Florida.

Joe Morris was relieved to be in the boat and glad to know all the jumpers were eventually accounted for. Two of the jumpers that landed in the lake were treated and released from the local hospital. However, the burning question was why had it taken so long to rescue the jumpers?

The drop zone owner claims he used to have a pontoon boat docked at the lake in case of an emergency. He said he was "ripped off" so many times the sheriff's department told him to take the boat out and let the fire department do the rescues. The fire department had a rescue boat stationed on the lake and boasted a six minute response time. However, the fire department effort appears more like a Keystone Cops operation than a professional, organized, emergency rescue team. According to Morris, the fire department had taken their rescue boat out of the water six weeks earlier. When they received the emergency call, they had to get the boat out of the firehouse, load it with equipment, hook it up to a vehicle, stop for gas, get the boat in the water, and then find the jumpers. Lake Okeechobee has more than 700 square miles of water. It took longer to find the first two jumpers because they were nearly a mile off shore.

Morris realizes he was very lucky to survive this ordeal. Since 1967, there have been more than 50 skydiving fatalities from water landings. If the cells of a canopy fill up with water, the parachute weighs more than a ton and will drag you to the bottom quickly. The United States Parachute Association recommends that any skydiver jumping within a mile of an open body of water wear flotation gear.

Joe attributes his survival to his intentional water landing experience under a parasail, staying calm, thinking positive, and his training at the Greene County Sport Parachute Center in Bardstown, Kentucky. He says the next time he is jumping close to water, he will definitely be sporting flotation gear. He will ask the drop zone what their rescue emergency plan is, and look at an aerial photo or map to find out where the correct exit point should be. Last but not least, Morris says, "Look before you leap."