California IN BRIEF : HUNTINGTON BEACH : Jumper Not Secured, Consultant Claims

The bungee jumping instructor who died last week in what is apparently the sport’s first fatal accident in the United States failed to securely attach himself to an elastic cord before leaping from a hot air balloon 180 feet above ground, a safety consultant said. “He wasn’t hooked up to the bungee cords properly,” said Stat Cochran, a safety consultant to the Utah-based North American Bungee Assn. (NABA), a private association attempting to regulate the sport. “This accident should never have happened.” Police and state safety investigators have not yet determined a cause for the Oct. 27 accident in Perris that killed Hal Irish, 29, of La Mirada.