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Inquest rules death of human cannonball was accident

Wed, 21 Jan 2015

An inquest has ruled that the death of a budding stuntman, who used to live on the Isle of Man, was an accident.

Matthew Cranch had been performing as a human cannonball at a Daredevil Stunt Show in Maidstone in April 2011.

The 24-year-old Onchan man fell to his death when the safety net failed after he'd been fired 40 feet in the air.

A court in England heard that during the firing of the cannon the safety net quick release mechanism activated too soon, as a result of being incorrectly set, this resulted in the collapse of the safety net.

Matthew had joined the company the previous month and had performed the trick successfully five times prior to the tragic accident.

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