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Skydiving Accident Leaves Security Guru Cedric 'Sid' Blancher Dead At 37

Posted by timothy on from the regards-to-his-friends-and-family dept.

An anonymous reader points out The Register's report that Wi-Fi security expert Cédric 'Sid' Blancher has died as the result of a skydiving accident. "Among other things, the 37-year-old Blancher was a sought-after speaker on WiFi security, and in 2005 published a Python-based WiFi traffic injection tool called Wifitap. In 2006, while working for the EADS Corporate Research centre, he also put together a paper on how to exploit Skype to act as a botnet." Some of Blancher's skydiving videos are posted to Vimeo; clearly, it's something he was passionate about.

48 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Security 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Secure your common sense. Don't skydive.

    1. Re: Security 101 by WWJohnBrowningDo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Skydiving is 7 micromorts per jump. That's equivalent to travlling 1600 miles by car.

      Source

    2. Re: Security 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They typically don't die while skydiving. It's right after they stop skydiving.

    3. Re: Security 101 by Creepy · · Score: 2

      While that may be a useful measurement for scientists, it isn't a very useful measurement for humans - a better one is about 1 in 142000 jumps (2010 numbers).

      This is probably why one of my life insurance specifically prohibits skydiving and hang gliding (my work one has no prohibitions, but pays less money). It also prohibits SCUBA diving over (under?) 150ft, but I only recreational dive (less than 110ft).

    4. Re: Security 101 by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's really a distortion of how dangerous skydiving is. The vast majority of skydiving deaths aren't really accidents but rather someone doing something stupid under a perfectly good canopy.

      I don't see the distortion -- deaths caused by stupidity are just a real as any other kind of death. In that case, the risk is that you'll make a bad decision, rather than a risk of equipment failure, but it's still a risk.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    5. Re: Security 101 by Lehk228 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      indeed, most car accidents are caused by one or more stupid actions

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    6. Re: Security 101 by c0lo · · Score: 2

      Skydiving is 7 micromorts per jump. That's equivalent to travlling 1600 miles by car.

      Source

      Or:
      * (at an age of 37) twice as risky as getting out of bed in any given morning;
      * 7 times less risky than giving birth in Sweden or 24 times less risky than giving birth in USA

      (umm... looking at the numbers above and speaking for myself, I'd choose skydiving over giving birth at any time... of course, being a male does bear a trace of influence on the decision...)

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    7. Re: Security 101 by skegg · · Score: 2

      Also: driving is usually necessary, skydiving rarely is.

    8. Re: Security 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      " from things that are either illegal (base jumping)"

      WHOA! - B.A.S.E. jumping is NOT illegal - not everywhere, at least. As a matter of fact, in Twin Falls, Idaho, they let you jump off one of their bridges (Perrine bridge, over the Snake river) pretty much any time you want to. It's a big draw to their city.

    9. Re: Security 101 by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

      I read that the rate of serious skydiving accidents (often fatal but not always) was 1:5000 jumps for experienced skydivers. Some of them are probably less careful than others.

      But that's still pretty high. About the same as the broken leg/blow acl for skiers (about 1:6000).

      Less people sky dive. Basically every skiing day- multiple people come down on stretchers with ruined knees and legs. You can mitigate that- but a friend had her knee blown when a reckless hot shot blindsided her.

      Of course--- I'd consider just about the safest thing you could do to be exiting a toll booth stop and someone died here last friday. The dump truck to their left took a 90 degree right turn, smashed them into the barricade and their gas tank exploded. That set off the dump truck fuel which burned for hours. They are speculating the dump truck driver had a heart attack as he exited the toll booth.

      So if your number is up...

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    10. Re: Security 101 by mspohr · · Score: 2

      I think I read somewhere (citation needed) that some sports such as hang gliding and sky diving have a "negative learning curve" where people take more risks and they become more dangerous over time.
      That could be what happened here.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    11. Re: Security 101 by mspohr · · Score: 2

      But... how many of these were fatal to the fish vs fatal to the fisherman?

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  2. That's a shame by msobkow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's a shame. To go so young.

    But I never have understood the sanity behind jumping out of a perfectly good plane. :(

    A friend of mine was into sky diving years ago. Everyone warned him he was taking crazy risks and he'd die some time.

    But in the end, he died flat on his back under a car that slipped from the jacks. Life can be so ironic...

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:That's a shame by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 2

      Perhaps if you survive things which are perceived as very dangerous, your risk awareness is skewed?

    2. Re:That's a shame by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I've been skydiving exactly once...

      It was on my bucket list, wanted to try it to see what all the fuss was about.

      I've had many amazing experiences in life. Getting married, the birth of my children, flying solo for the first time (in a helicopter with the doors off, quite an experience!).

      About the only thing that compares... the birth of my first child... that is first on the list, skydiving would be second... above everything else...

      There is simply nothing I can say to anyone who hasn't done it... stepping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet above the ground, parachute on your back, nothing but you, the sky, and God.

      Well, ok, the pair of instructors with you, one per side. I did the accelerated free fall option, so I had my own chute, they fall with you to 5,000 ft, then you open and spend about 4 minutes by yourself under canopy (they fall another 1,000 ft to make sure your chute opens cleanly, then they open their own.)

      I understand it, it is amazing, and I never need to do it again. :)

    3. Re:That's a shame by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I expect it depends a lot on your physiology/psychology. I don't really get any kick at all out of extreme physical experiences, or anything material - and I've had lots of opportunity.

      Solving a complex mathematical problem is an immense thrill for me, however. Or figuring out a clever algorithm.

      Why yes, I am a nerd and a geek.

      World's good with all different sorts, though :).

    4. Re:That's a shame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A friend of mine was into sky diving years ago. Everyone warned him he was taking crazy risks and he'd die some time.

      But in the end, he died flat on his back under a car that slipped from the jacks. Life can be so ironic...

      Steve Irving (aka the crocodile hunter) always said "if I ever die during recording something then people will just laugh and say "the crocs finally got him"". In the end he died during recording due to a freak accident involving a stingray. Supposedly they just bumped into each other by accident and the tail went strait though his chest. Life is neither fair or predictable.

    5. Re:That's a shame by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've had lots of opportunity.

      The question is, did you act on the opportunity? Did you really climb, jump, shoot the rapids, or whatever the opportunity was for? Many people have opportunities, not all take them. Besides ...

      Nothing says a nerd and a geek
      can't also be an adrenaline freak.

      There are pleasures to be had from both intellectual achievement and testing one's physical courage.

      “There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.” -- Winston Churchill

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    6. Re: That's a shame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      People don't understand that most fatalities from skydiving involve stunts of some sort: hook turns, base jumping, wingsuits. The translation from the French article isn't all that great, but it looks like he was attempting a hook turn and didn't judge the distance well.

      People who just jump out of a plane, open their chute, and drift to the ground rarely perish.

    7. Re:That's a shame by tftp · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is a troll? I don't know the circumstances of his death

      As far as I recall, this is exactly what killed him.

    8. Re: That's a shame by snowsnoot · · Score: 2

      Its Irwin not Irving you twadwaffle.. and yes he suffered one of the only ever recorded deaths caused by a sting ray ever. If it was going to happen to anyone it was gonna be him. A national hero and a pretty decent surfer too, zoo keeper uniform and all.

    9. Re:That's a shame by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 2

      There is simply nothing I can say to anyone who hasn't done it... stepping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet above the ground, parachute on your back, nothing but you, the sky, and God

      If God was there, you could have tried it without the parachute.

    10. Re:That's a shame by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 3, Funny

      A helicopter is just a collection of 10,000 parts traveling loosely in formation! :)

    11. Re: That's a shame by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 5, Informative
      My skydiving instructor's name was Eddie, he was a very experienced guy (he sure looked it), he said that he had over 8,000 jumps in his logbook going back over several decades.

      In all that time, he has had to use his reserve chute 4 times, however all 4 uses were in the first 4,000 jumps, he hadn't had to use it in almost 20 years.

      His comment was that due to modern chute designs and modern safety practices, if you're just "jumping out of the plane, opening the chute, and landing", the odds of dying are very low. If you do stunts, formations, or fly a sport chute, your risk goes way up.

      He showed us a video of a reserve being used, we also carried an AAD (automatic activation device) and frankly, they have saved a lot of lives in skydiving.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_activation_device

      In short, depending on the model of course, but for a student, if you're falling more than 29 feet per second when you pass through 750 feet above the ground, it fires a wedge cutter that cuts the closing loop to the reserve chute, which is spring loaded so it will deploy even if you're upside down, tumbling, or whatever...

      It takes no more than 250 feet beyond that to fully open a student chute and 250 feet beyond that to fully arrest your sink rate to just a few feet per second, so even if you're completely passed out, you'll live.

      Over 1,000 people have had their lives saved via an AAD, and most jump zones require them for all jumpers.

    12. Re:That's a shame by JamieIanMacgregor · · Score: 2

      Cinderblocks are a BAD thing to use, they can easily crush under the weight of a vehicle causing a sudden drop. steel wheels, wooden blocks yes.

    13. Re:That's a shame by tftp · · Score: 2

      That's *hardly* the philosophy you claimed in your reply, "to each his own".

      There is not necessarily a contradiction here. Don't you know of an activity that you personally do not approve and do not perform, but - out of tolerance for views of others - allow others to participate in? I may think that it is stupid to climb mountains, or drive in circles for hours for no good reason, and it fits the dictionary entry as "pointless; worthless" - as long as you do not assign any worth to the endeavor. Of course, assigning worth is a personal issue - but so is my opinion, and yours, and everyone else's.

      they are (in your mind) an indicator of people who provide little value to society

      One can always skim through biographies of a few major scientists (Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson, Lev Landau, Niels Bohr) and notice that they are not known for thrill-seeking behavior - outside of theoretical physics, at least :-) You can also go through the list of drivers in NASCAR, Indy and F-1 in hope to find anyone who was nominated for a Nobel Prize - or even who can tell right away what Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem is about. Despite the fact that every one of them owns a cell phone.

      If you think space tourism isn't going to advance space endeavors, you're just kidding yourself.

      You can always strap a donkey to a cart instead of a horse to save money; but it won't be an advancement of transportation. The transportation was advanced not in evolutionary, but in revolutionary steps. Those steps did not directly follow one from another. But those spaceplanes are just rehashes of a concept that is already well understood and that is already at its theoretical limit. The most damning fact is that it is very expensive - and it's not going to be much less expensive in the future. Sure, you can sacrifice orbit height (to just touch the space,) and you can make it a suborbital hop, and you can save some energy on air launch... but those are just inconsequential improvements that have no bearing on the problem how to launch 10,000 tons of parts to Mars, or how to automatically assemble them into ten robotic TBMs and five plants that manufacture fuel (or something) for return of the expedition.

    14. Re:That's a shame by camperdave · · Score: 2

      The only reason helicopters fly is that they are so ugly the ground repels them.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  3. Re:Guru at 37? by SternisheFan · · Score: 2

    http://blip.tv/pauldotcom/cedric-blancher-on-wifi-security-6158722

  4. If at first you don't succeed... by Shoten · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...skydiving is not for you.

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  5. Re:look out below ! by IANAAC · · Score: 2, Insightful

    splat !

    Your comment pretty mirrors the (currently) 19 comments on the reg site.

    I suppose a lot of people deal with tragedy through humor, but I sure wouldn't want to be a surviving family member and read some of the comments posted so far.

    At least you did it anoncowardly.

  6. Re:look out below ! by bitt3n · · Score: 5, Funny

    I suppose a lot of people deal with tragedy through humor, but I sure wouldn't want to be a surviving family member and read some of the comments posted so far.

    Seriously, it amazes me how people can fail to understand the gravity of this kind of situation.

    --
    how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
  7. Re:Accident? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ok, hi paranoid! He did a hook turn all by himself into the ground. He looks like he was a pretty good flyer, but hook turns kill - they are VERY unforgiving

  8. Re:Accident? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.skydivekansas.com/upjumpers/hookturns.shtml

  9. Re:look out below ! by wisnoskij · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone dying by definition cannot be a tragedy to the rest of the word. Tragedy implies not just life as usual.

    Though some philosophers maintain that life is a tragedy, so I guess they would disagree.
    Personally, I love Seneca's sentiment: “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”

    Besides that is a pretty epic way to die.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  10. Re:RIP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    CORD!

  11. Hook turn maneuver by ciurana · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the report, it sounds like Cédric performed a maneuver called "hook turn" -- it's a high speed turn in your final approach, 100' or less from the ground, considered deadly and stupid by USPA, the French Federation of Parachutism, and pretty much anyone who's been jumping for a while.

    The rate of descent increased as a parachute (square, ram air canopy) banks. The sharper the turn, the faster the descent. The hook turn swings the jumper fast, like a pendulum, and an experienced jumper will guesstimate ending the swing at about the same time as his or her feet would touch the ground. The margin of error for a hook turn, by an experienced jumper riding a small canopy (the more experience the smaller the canopy), is between 5' and 10'.

    Start the turn too soon, and you'll end up 3' to 10' above the ground, with a stalled parachute, falling straight down. On a good day, a few bruises or a parachute landing fall, a dirty jump suit, and teasing from your pals. On a bad day, a twisted or broken ankle, yet survivable.

    Start the turn too late, and you'll slam the ground with enough force to kill you. And remember: too late is a difference of only about 5'.

    Even if the turn starts fine, and the jumper is the king of experienced up jumpers, other factors may come into play. A little thermal near the ground may force the canopy up or sideways near the ground. Or a cold air pocket (e.g. flying over a small puddle, or a dark patch on the ground) may drop the canopy a few feet faster.

    Most if not all drop zones since at least 1994 ban people caught doing hook turns because of the danger they present to the jumpers doing them and others around them. Every once in a while some hot shot with a few thousand jumps thinks he's above physics and chance, and does a bandit turn if nobody is watching.

    Maybe Cédric ran out of air on final and thought that hooking the turn would help him land into the wind. Maybe he was just hot dogging. Regardless, if he was an up jumper and he did a hook turn, he should've known better and performed a different maneuver. Sad to loose him, but not feeling sorry about the accident itself. Stuff like this is what gives a bad reputation to skydiving in the eyes of people with little or no knowledge of the sport.

    Cheers!

    --
    http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
    1. Re:Hook turn maneuver by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 3

      Even if the turn starts fine, and the jumper is the king of experienced up jumpers, other factors may come into play

      What would a gust of air from the blades of a silent black helicopter do?

  12. friends. by capaslash · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I wonder if it will be friends with me?" - Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

  13. Re:look out below ! by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Personally, I love Seneca's sentiment: “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”

    Besides that is a pretty epic way to die.

    I'm more of a Mel Brooks guy:

    "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

    Or maybe Hemmingway:

    " . . . all stories, if continued far enough, end in death . . ."

    --
    I am not a crackpot.
  14. Re:look out below ! by ihtoit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    no... the impact is what killed him. We are all subject to the effects of gravity 24/7. Difference is how far off the ground you are when you start your freefall.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  15. Re:Accident? by DexterIsADog · · Score: 2

    This is an illusion, and (I'm not an expert) I think you're displaying a combination of confirmation bias, and observation selection bias, where you use these events to (1) confirm your suspicion that nefarious forces are targeting individuals you believe they find threatening, and (2)notice these events (rather than the countless other accidental death reports, for example), and you believe this happens more frequently to those individuals you believe are being targeted.

    But I'm not saying they're *not* coming for you next.

  16. Rich People problem's day by Frankie70 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Rich People problems day on Slashdot
    - Skydiving Accident Leaves Security Guru Cedric 'Sid' Blancher Dead At 37
    - Rigging Up Baby - the rise of extreme baby monitoring

  17. Re:look out below ! by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Informative

    Stalin never said that. Please don't perpetuate spurious quotations.

  18. Re:look out below ! by CRCulver · · Score: 2

    As long as one has no real proof that person X said quotation Y, the decent and honest thing to not is to not attribute the quotation to him. The quotation is still insightful and stands on its out without the spurious attribution to Stalin, Hitler or whatever other historical figure is claimed to have said it.

  19. Re: look out below ! by rvw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least he died doing what he loved!

    I'd rather die at 73 mowing the lawn than at 37 while skydiving or having hot sex.

  20. Remembering Chema Celorio by DV · · Score: 2

    Nearly exactly 10 years ago, the GNOME community also lost a young member, Chema Celorio, in a Skydiving accident which was very similar unfortunately (low height, high speed turn).

  21. Skydiving accidents don't kill people. by Chardansearavitriol · · Score: 2

    The abrupt lack of sky does.

  22. Re:Hook turn maneuver: Apparently wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the report, it sounds like Cédric performed a maneuver called "hook turn"

    According to some source on linuxfr.org who claims he was a friend of Cedric as well as a fellow skydiver and was there with him the very day he died, he did not attempt said jump but something went wrong, possibly because of the day's high winds (but within the limit of acceptable speed). While Cedric had been learning about hook turns or whatever they are called, he apparently did not attempt it that day and was extremely square on security in general.

    Source: http://linuxfr.org/nodes/100355/comments/1500621