SEAL killed in BASE-jumping attempt lost his balance

SUFFOLK

Investigators said they believe the Navy SEAL who died after falling from a cell-phone tower lost his balance and couldn't trigger his parachute.

Tyler S. Stimson, a petty officer first class assigned to a Virginia Beach-based SEAL team, died Friday when his parachute failed to open properly, said city spokeswoman Debbie George.

Police said Stimson, who was 30, and another Virginia Beach-based SEAL were BASE jumping - leaping from a fixed object with a parachute.

Experts from the military inspected Stimson's chute and found nothing wrong with it, George said.

The cord apparently wrapped around his leg, George said, making it impossible to deploy the parachute.

Police charged the jumping partner, Jason James Tompsett, 31, of Virginia Beach, with trespassing.

The cell-phone tower off Godwin Boulevard is secured with a fence, a gate and barbed wire, George said. Someone had pulled the end caps off the barbed wire, making it easier to climb over.

This was the second time in nine months parachutists leapt from Suffolk towers. A witness reported seeing three people jump from a TV tower in Driver in October. They knocked out power to about 500 people for several hours. They were never caught.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com