Jumping Without a Parachute

A man in rural New York State apparently jumped out of a skydiving plane without a parachute and fell 10,000 feet to his death. Three other people (with parachutes) had jumped before him. He was on board apparently only as an observer. The pilot said he was just beginning to close the door after the first three people had jumped when the man without a parachute jumped out too.

Three things occur to me. Could the man in the excitement of watching the others jump have forgotten that he wasn't wearing a chute? Was he planning to skydive after the other jumpers and grab on to them?

Was the man not planning to jump at all, but when the pilot leaned back to close the door he inadvertantly rocked the plane, flipping the man into the void?

As I later learned, there was a camerman in the plane so that would seem unlikely. Actually police now suspect the man committed suicide. A few days before his death he was over-heard in the seafood section of a local supermarket wondering if jumping without a parachute was a good way to die.

Here's what would bother me. After he jumped he had all this time to think about what he'd done before he hit the ground. What was he planning to do if he changed his mind, sudden realized he'd over-looked a key factor and was otherwise making a huge mistake. It probably took him a full minute to fall 10,000 feet. What on earth was he thinking about all that time? Even he was achieving what what he'd always wanted, wasn't he still terrified?