At the request of the DZ, this video has been made private.
This jump was supposed to be a four-way with outside video. Everyone in the formation were reportedly new-ish jumpers, with less than 200 jumps. A jumper who was supposed to be in the formation dropped below everyone else and then deployed their canopy just as the other jumpers were starting to break off and track away. The deploying canopy came dangerously close to a higher jumper but, fortunately, there was no contact.
The jumper who went low appears to have not considered that, just because they weren’t in the formation, they should track away from everyone else and check to make sure the formation wasn’t above them before deploying their canopy. The written submission that came with this video noted that they were particularly new with only approx. 50 skydives. As such, the question must be asked: Were they trained on what to do if they went low on a formation?
Going low on a formation happens. But when it occurs, jumpers need to be aware of what they must do. As one experienced belly organizer put it, “When you go low, for the rest of the jump, your only new job is to try and get back.” If you can’t get back, at least get level. If you can’t do either one of those you still need to turn and burn at the planned altitude, track like everyone is trying to kill you, and then pull at the planned altitude.
The fault for this incident is almost exclusively on the low jumper, but it should also be noted that the other jumper with whom they almost hit is right above the videographer. That suggests this other person was also doing a rather poor job tracking away from the rest of the formation.
At the request of the DZ, this video has been made private.
This jump was supposed to be a four-way with outside video. Everyone in the formation were reportedly new-ish jumpers, with less than 200 jumps. A jumper who was supposed to be in the formation dropped below everyone else and then deployed their canopy just as the other jumpers were starting to break off and track away. The deploying canopy came dangerously close to a higher jumper but, fortunately, there was no contact.
The jumper who went low appears to have not considered that, just because they weren’t in the formation, they should track away from everyone else and check to make sure the formation wasn’t above them before deploying their canopy. The written submission that came with this video noted that they were particularly new with only approx. 50 skydives. As such, the question must be asked: Were they trained on what to do if they went low on a formation?
Going low on a formation happens. But when it occurs, jumpers need to be aware of what they must do. As one experienced belly organizer put it, “When you go low, for the rest of the jump, your only new job is to try and get back.” If you can’t get back, at least get level. If you can’t do either one of those you still need to turn and burn at the planned altitude, track like everyone is trying to kill you, and then pull at the planned altitude.
The fault for this incident is almost exclusively on the low jumper, but it should also be noted that the other jumper with whom they almost hit is right above the videographer. That suggests this other person was also doing a rather poor job tracking away from the rest of the formation.
