Firm Denies Hiring Handlers in Fatal Bungee Jump

SAN FERNANDO — The stage manager for a firm that arranged the fatal bungee jumping exhibition, planned for the Super Bowl denied Wednesday that his firm was responsible for the selection of undertrained workers who may have assisted in the jumps.

Wally Pinn of Branam Enterprises of San Fernando said Select Productions, an Orange County firm responsible for producing the halftime show at the football extravaganza, provided rigging handlers who were holding the ropes of a jumper who was killed last Thursday during a rehearsal. The bungee exhibition, planned as part of the Super Bowl halftime show, was canceled after the accident.

Pinn said Branam provided the equipment, the jumpers and some handlers. Pinn said there was nothing wrong with Branam’s equipment or personnel.

Branam has been doing special effects work such as platforms and special effects flying for the entertainment industry since 1978. Some of the firm’s clients have included Madonna, Michael Jackson, Kenny Rogers, and the Rolling Stones, Pinn said.

Repeated efforts to reach Select Productions were unsuccessful.

Lora “Dinky” Patterson, 41, of Sarasota, Fla., one of eight jumpers, died instantly when her rope extended too far and she hit the ground. According to news reports, one volunteer handler said Branam assigned him and other volunteers to hold the ropes for the jumpers and that they got only about two minutes of advance training.

Pinn said Branam would never use untrained volunteers for such an important job. He said his firm had trained some of the handlers for the jumps.

“But on this jump, the Branam handlers were not involved,” he said, referring to Patterson’s handlers. “They were handling other jumpers.”

Rick Rice, deputy director for the the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said neither Branam nor Select has been the subject of any investigations or complaints about violations of state safety regulations.

Lt. Marlon Defillo, of the New Orleans Police Department, said investigators still are trying to determine the cause of the accident. He declined to reveal details of their investigation.

The National Football League, meanwhile, is awaiting results of the police investigation and its own internal review, said Greg Aiello, the league’s director of communications.

Aiello said the league is exploring other aspects of the accident, such as the hiring procedure for the halftime show, including who was hired to perform specific duties and other logistics of the program.

“We are reviewing other aspects in terms of our own procedure,” Aiello said. “We have not drawn any conclusions.”