Posted on 03/18/2018 7:09:03 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Arnaud had been performing in Cirque shows for 15 years and was considered one of the company's most experienced entertainers, President and Chief Executive Daniel Lamarre told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We were very surprised, considering his experience, that something like that happened," said Lamarre, speaking from Tampa, where he had flown to be with the show's cast. "I cannot describe to you how the people feel. It's terrible."
The death is the third involving a Cirque performer in the company's 34 years, Lamarre said, adding that the aerial strap act was seen as a relatively safe number. Julian Martinez, a spectator who witnessed the accident, told NBC affiliate WFLA: "It was awful. You heard all the cries of the audience. There were children there, and they were freaking out."
Lamarre said he couldn't share details about the incident involving Arnaud, a husband and father of two young children.
"We are offering our full and transparent collaboration to the authorities as they look into the circumstances of this accident," the company said in a statement, adding that the last two shows of Volta planned for Tampa on Sunday had been canceled.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Reminds me of Karl Wallenda.
They’ve had 3 fatalities but a number of lesser accidents. The one below is from March 2017:
RIP (Arnaud is the guy on the left.)
I have great fear of heights. Reading about a death from a fall ruins me.
Wonder if PETA is going to protest until human acts are eliminated from the circus?
“I have great fear of heights.”
Ditto !!!!
It’s dreadful.
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So this jump is not for you then.
As a young man, back in the 1960s and early ‘70s, I used to climb mountains and cliff faces using ropes and pitons. I had one hairy scare when a piece of rock crumbled under my fingers up a on cliff face and realized it would have been a 75 foot fall. Now days, I get nervous going six feet up a ladder.
That was a profoundly bad situation. IIRC, he was 73 y.o. and it was windy and as you look back at the still images, you just wasn’t to hit rewind and persuade him not to go. However far he fell he landed on cars and there was no chance of surviving. There is something about the still images of him realizing that either he wasn’t strong enough for the wind, or the rigging was not right - or something, but you can just see it on his face.
It is always very unsettling when someone who is superlatively qualified for a dangerous job dies doing it.
Nope!
Wow! Same thing. I was on a military training exercise years ago and “froze” on a cliff roof about 120 feet up. My buddy had to belay me down as I sweated bullets and I have been spooked by heights since. No problem jumping out of airplanes for some bizarre reason (maybe just that it’s do-or-die?)But for some reason I freak out when I’m looking over a cliff or out of a building. Even my kids laugh at me.
You at least had a period where you could tolerate heights, I never did——I have been this way my entire life.
Just looking at pics or videos of high montain roads sickens me,like the road to Ouray,CO.
.
I live in the mountains and sometimes have to drive two lane winding roads with 500 to 1,000 foot drop offs. It is almost more than I can stand.
So...what made you want to do this? I parachuted one time, but would never do it again.
I drove that crumbling golf cart track along the cliffs around the north end of Maui once. After fifteen miles I saw a two lane highway ahead, and felt like my life had been given back to me.
I couldn’t drive those roads-—I would freeze.
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AW,God-——I knew it was coming and I yelled..
Dreadful.
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