"Lawn Chair, Two O'Clock, One Mile..."

Maxwell wrote:

They couldn't duplicate it on their show, and considered it busted. But a
good friend of mine was trying to move one in a church that was under
construction. He accidentally drove it into an orchestra pit and was thrown
across the sanctuary.

That's very different than what they were investigating on the show.

On the show, the conditions involved suddenly removing a lifted weight,
causing the arm to suddenly apply the lifting force in the opposite
direction, launching the occupant as a projectile.

With all due respect to your friend, it sounds like he was thrown as one
set of wheels fell into a hole. This is totally different, very easy to
understand, and unfortunately, it happens on a regular basis.

I work for a utility company, and guess what happens when a line truck
with the boom up gets hit by a car? The same thing! This is why body
harnesses are OSHA required when working aloft on a platform or in a
bucket. We've had technicians travel a surprising distance to their
death as the parked truck was rear-ended and the harness wasn't attached.