Bungee-Jumper’s Death Blamed on Error : Accident: An industry organization, in defending the sport, said the instructor failed to secure himself properly to the elastic cord.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  The bungee-jumping instructor who was killed last week in what was apparently the sport’s first fatal accident in this country failed to securely attach himself to an elastic cord before leaping from a hot-air balloon 180 feet above ground, according to an industry organization that defended the sport Thursday.

“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). “This accident should never have happened.”

The group’s statement was the first official explanation for the tragedy. Police and state safety investigators have not yet determined a cause for the Sunday accident in Perris, in Riverside County, that killed Hal Irish, 29, of La Mirada.

At a press conference Thursday in Huntington Beach at the office of a local NABA chapter, association officials strongly defended their sport, saying that it can be enjoyed safely when certain guidelines are followed.

They released a videotape of the fatal jump and said the dramatic footage shows that the company involved in the mishap did not abide by accepted industry safety standards. The company, Redondo Beach-based Ultimate Jump, is not a member of the NABA, which is made up of 40 bungee-jumping companies nationwide.

Officials of Ultimate Jump and the victim’s family members could not be reached for comment on NABA’s conclusions.

The video clip, shot by one of the clients who paid to jump that day, showed Irish on the ground, having some difficulty in attaching himself to the cord just before a demonstration jump at about 8 a.m.

Two other men were near Irish as he reattached his fasteners, the video shows. Once the balloon reached a jumping level of about 180 feet, Irish leaped from the gondola. His elastic lifeline stretched and started to hurl him upward when it suddenly became detached, according to the video. Irish could be seen flailing his arms and legs as he fell to his death.

After a weeklong investigation, the NABA offered this explanation for the accident:

Irish accidentally slipped his fasteners around the cord, rather than clipping them to looped straps at the end of the cord. Because of knots at the end of the cord, his fasteners, called carabineers, did not completely slide off the cord until he bounced upward.

The association determined that there were no problems with the victim’s equipment.

“It was a tragic accident,” said Cochran, who added that Irish was about 70 feet above ground when he became detached from the cords.

Among the association’s findings were that Irish, with only about 30 jumps, may have been too inexperienced to be an instructor, and that a system of rechecking the harnesses and fasteners was not followed.

According to those knowledgeable in the fledgling commercial sport, Irish was the nation’s first bungee-jumping fatality, although recent deaths from the sport have been reported in New Zealand, France and South Africa.

Because the sport is relatively new in the United States, there is virtually no governmental regulations to protect jumpers.