Photo by Sebastian Widmann, Special to the Town Crier
Frank Zinn of Los Altos displays a newspaper photo of himself taken immediately after the fatal parachute jump that took the life of his friend Jan Davis.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Los Altos resident Frank Zinn got a call from Jan Davis Oct. 21, the night before she made a fatal parachute jump off 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite Valley on Oct. 22. Davis, 60, and husband Tom Sanders, 46, were on their way to Yosemite and wanted their friend and co-worker to photograph Davis' jump.
But Zinn, a 54-year-old freelance photographer, was house-sitting and told them he had to feed a cat.
"Well, double-feed the cat," Davis said playfully.
Zinn left the well-fed feline, and the next morning at 8:15, he joined Sanders and a waiting crowd in the meadow beneath El Capitan. Davis' scheduled 2 p.m. jump was the fourth of five jumpers that Friday.
Zinn had known Sanders since 1978 when they parachuted together, and Davis since 1988. "Jan was one of my closest friends," Zinn said. Witnessing her death "was pretty traumatic."
Davis' jump was made in support of safe BASE jumping in the national park. BASE is an acronym for "Buildings, Antennas, Spans, and Earth," and emphasizes that the sport uses stationery objects, not airplanes, as the base for sport jumping. Park rangers outlawed the jumps because of the dangers of the sport.
"It's dangerous of course," Zinn said, "but not that dangerous."
Yet six BASE jumpers have died in Yosemite since 1980.
Davis' death is another in a long string of tragedies that haunt Zinn. Papers around the nation showed a photograph of him taken right after Davis' jump. Zinn is grim-faced, slumped over his photo equipment next to a grieving Sanders.
Zinn works on assignment for Aerial Focus, a company started by Sanders in 1988. Aerial Focus supplies photographers and technical support for parachute jumps on commercial films such as "Drop Zone," "Terminal Velocity," and the James Bond series. Davis had also worked for the company and "was hired by all the movie companies," according to Zinn.
Zinn said Davis, "was hired by all the movie companies. She was responsible for everybody's gear. She was the master (parachute) rigger."
"I've done aviation all my life," Zinn said. "I've flown in planes all my life; I wanted to be a crop duster. I jumped for three years. I stopped jumping because I jumped out of six planes, and all six crashed. Thirty-one people died, all over California. We went up in a helicopter about four months ago for a shoot, and I was terrified."
Deciding the BASE protest was worth the risk, Davis and the other BASE jumpers made a deal with park rangers. The jumpers would make their protest jumps, but park rangers would greet them on the ground, permanently confiscate their gear, and arrest and fine each jumper $2,000. The BASE jumpers could then pursue the issue in court.
But parachute gear is expensive and Davis wanted to keep her own, Zinn said. She borrowed a used container to pack her chute in. On her own gear, the rip cord was on her back. The cord was on the leg on the borrowed container.
Zinn once jumped under similar circumstances. "I went to look for the cord," Zinn said. Fumbling for it, he lost precious time. "I should have pulled at 6,000 feet, but I didn't find it to pull until I was at 2,000."
Zinn will photograph this Saturday's parachute-jumping ceremony to scatter Davis' ashes near Lake Elsinore.