With all the news about the tragic Human Cannonball accident at Detling Showground there are a few details that are facts, some that have been stated but could be incorrect and a number of questions that have been raised.
Known Facts:
The landing net released as the stuntman left the cannon
The landing net was supposedly to release once he had landed and had a number of seconds to leave the net first, as can be seen at the end in this YouTube video of a previous show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJSAjrcrPtM
The Stuntshow at Detling Kent had two performances, other shows only had one per day
Only one St Johns Ambulance volunteer on site with no ambulance present.
One person seated monitoring the Human Canonball stunt where previously there were five standing.
Small arena venue and Honda Pilot stunt was stopped & repeated stunt when it veered towards crowd
The accident happened at 1538 as Matt Cranch performed the human cannonball stunt.
The first paramedic responder was on scene at 1547
The main ambulance arrived at 1552
The police arrived on site at 1555
The air ambulance arrived at 1558
The land based ambulance left site at 1632 to take Matt to Maidstone hospital
The air ambulance left site empty at 1641to return to base
The incredible thing from these timings is how quickly the emergency services responded and in particular how quickly the air ambulance was able to get on scene. Within 10 minutes of the accident the paramedics were on site and with 20 minutes of the accident happening the air ambulance was on site. The Kent Air Ambulance is not publicly funded and relies on donations to run. Although sadly in this incident they were unable to save Matt their service is an exceptionally important one.
Unconfirmed Rumours
Matt Cranch had been doing the show for 9 days. His first show was on 16 April 2011 according to video posted online.
There was another injury at show on Friday night at Lingfield with a stunt rider breaking their foot according to a post on YouTube video.
Questions
How did the net release at start of stunt when it was meant to happen at the end. Was this an automatic release by timer or other mechanism or does someone/something have to trigger it?
Why did 2003 show have five people standing surrounding the net but 2011 had only one seated some distance?
