This skydiver was required to wear underarm flotation equipment due to the location and jumping over the water. She adjusted the flotation equipment on her belly but didn't wrap the strap up. When she deployed the pilot chute on her main, it got caught in a loop created by the flotation equipment strap. As it deployed, the main also entangled and got stuck on her belly. She *immediately* saw that she was dealing with a hot mess and, following her emergency procedures, pulled her cutaway and reserve handles. Her cutaway didn't clear her main due to entanglement but, fortunately, when the reserve came out it appears to have untangled the main the rest of the way. Bonus points for the beach landing in paradise.
Any loose gear can potentially get in the way of your deployment. (Just the other week we had a video where a handle caught in the lines of a deploying reserve.) It’s important to stow away anything that can flap around and interfere with your pitch, deployment process, or handles.
A big part of what happened here was probably the fact that the jumper was required to wear gear that they didn’t use regularly — if ever before. To their detriment, they probably didn’t consider a small strap on that gear to be an entanglement risk. The lesson to walk away with is that anytime you add something new to your setup — a helmet mount, flotation equipment, a tutu, or anything else — you need to think about how it could affect every aspect of your jump.
This jumper deserves a lot of credit for her emergency procedures. From the moment she realized she needed to chop, to the moment her reserve was inflating, was under ten seconds. While we never want to see someone have to cutaway, this is the type of reaction we want to see when it happens!
This skydiver was required to wear underarm flotation equipment due to the location and jumping over the water. She adjusted the flotation equipment on her belly but didn't wrap the strap up. When she deployed the pilot chute on her main, it got caught in a loop created by the flotation equipment strap. As it deployed, the main also entangled and got stuck on her belly. She *immediately* saw that she was dealing with a hot mess and, following her emergency procedures, pulled her cutaway and reserve handles. Her cutaway didn't clear her main due to entanglement but, fortunately, when the reserve came out it appears to have untangled the main the rest of the way. Bonus points for the beach landing in paradise.
Any loose gear can potentially get in the way of your deployment. (Just the other week we had a video where a handle caught in the lines of a deploying reserve.) It’s important to stow away anything that can flap around and interfere with your pitch, deployment process, or handles.
A big part of what happened here was probably the fact that the jumper was required to wear gear that they didn’t use regularly — if ever before. To their detriment, they probably didn’t consider a small strap on that gear to be an entanglement risk. The lesson to walk away with is that anytime you add something new to your setup — a helmet mount, flotation equipment, a tutu, or anything else — you need to think about how it could affect every aspect of your jump.
This jumper deserves a lot of credit for her emergency procedures. From the moment she realized she needed to chop, to the moment her reserve was inflating, was under ten seconds. While we never want to see someone have to cutaway, this is the type of reaction we want to see when it happens!
