Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — Some BASE jumpers plan to skip West Virginia's Bridge Day festival next year because of a new security requirement.
The jumpers will have to undergo fingerprint scans, along with rappellers and vendors. Bridge Day organizers plan to check the fingerprints against a terrorism watch list.
Alan Lewis of Tennessee is organizing a visit by jumpers to the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho, instead of Bridge Day. He told The Charleston Gazette (http://bit.ly/1iNPPHD) that law enforcement in Twin Falls is more welcoming to BASE jumpers.
"We're a small community worldwide," he said. "Pretty much everybody knows everybody, and we've all got together and decided that West Virginia is not the place we need to be if we're going to be treated the way we're treated."
BASE stands for building, antenna, span and Earth, the fixed objects from which jumpers leap with parachutes. Bridge Day is the only time that BASE jumping is allowed from the New River Gorge Bridge. The event, held on the third Saturday in October, attracts about 450 jumpers.
Bridge Day Commission chair Sharon Cruikshank told the newspaper earlier that the fingerprints won't be saved and that the scans are less intrusive than background checks, which have been required for jumpers, rappellers and vendors since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Jason Bell said BASE jumpers are not the type of people who would willingly submit to fingerprinting.
"Look, they're independent people, and the nature of the sport may often find them hopping a fence to gain access to an object (to jump from)," said Bell, who has served as Bridge Day's BASE jumping coordinator for several years. "It's essentially a victim-less crime."
He said bomb-sniffing dogs could be used to check parachutes.
Bell said he doesn't plan to work as BASE jumping coordinator when the new requirements are implemented.
Collin Scott said he jumped at Bridge Day in 2004 and in 2005 or 2006 and had planned to do so again. But that plan changed when he heard about the finger scan requirement.
He and Lewis said there are other issues with Bridge Day, including an entrance fee and a six-hour jumping window.
___
Information from: The Charleston Gazette, http://www.wvgazette.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
