Five BASE Jumpers Convicted

While conducting a patrol just before daybreak on January 15th, ranger Randy Fisher saw several parachutes open just below the New River Gorge Bridge. Fisher contacted and attempted to detain the five jumpers at their landing site, but four of the five took off running while Fisher was waiting for backup. One of them – Peter Lutz, 48, of Urbana, Illinois – was apprehended by Fisher as he ran along the CSX railroad tracks, and another was found later in the morning attempting to hitchhike out of the gorge on Fayette Station Road. By day’s end, three people had been arrested and booked into jail – Lutz, Dennis Dyminski, 30, and Cinderella Bueno Aquino, 23. Aquino and Dyminski are also from Urbana. That evening, a fourth parachutist – Victor Suvorov, 47, of Romulus, Michigan – surrendered to Fisher at the Burnwood ranger station and said that he and his wife – Ekatarina Suvorov, 23 – would appear before a federal magistrate on January 16th. Prior to their initial appearances, all five agreed to have their cases heard before the federal magistrate and agreed to plead ‘no contest’ to the charges:

• Victor Suvorov was fined $1,320 for his second illegal air delivery violation in the park (the first was in 2004) and for fleeing an officer
• Ekatarina Suvorov was fined $85 for fleeing an officer
• Dyminski, Aquino and Lutz were each fined $635 for illegal air delivery and for fleeing an office