Parachutist ordered off Ice

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 1

Parachutist ordered off Ice

PA Auckland An American, who says he made the first Antarctic civilian parachute jump on Saturday, was ordered from the continent the same day, he said in Auckland last evening. Mr Tom Curran, aged 32, of Chicago, said: he was ordered to leave McMurdo Station within minutes of a smooth landing nearby. He said he had arrived only five days earlier on a six-month contract. United States Navy officials, furious over his making the jump off Mount Ob, a 300-metre hill behind the base, put him in a Starlifter for Christchurch, where he arrived on Sunday. “When I landed they told me I should have asked permission,” he said. “I don’t think I was being irresponsible. I’ve been parachuting for 12 years and made 800 jumps. I

guess it came as a kind of shock when they fired me, but I was getting tired of shovelling snow.” Mr Curran, who had signed a contract with the communications giant, ITT, as part of the research programme run by the United States National Science Foundation, said he was returning to his little restaurant near Chicago.