This tracking group was led by the jumper whose point of view we're looking at. They got out of the plane, started moving, and lost… track… of their direction (see what I did there?). They traveled up jump run and into the air space of a solo head down skydiver who exited after them. As you can see in the video, the differences in vertical speed between these two groups was significant and – had there been a mid-air collision – it could have been fatal.
Simply put, this jumper wasn’t paying attention to where he was going. As the leader on a movement group that’s the most important part of your job because – if you track into another group’s airspace – you’re creating potentially dangerous situations during freefall, deployment, and under canopy.
Before leading this type of a jump, an individual really needs to take a moment and be honest about their capabilities. It’s not just a question of whether or not you have the skills to fly well but also if you’re able to stay aware of your surroundings, the direction of jump run, and where everyone else is on the jump.
A lot of jumpers hate that skydiving seems to keep adding rules and regulations but many, especially the ones made by DZO’s and S&TA’s, are there for a reason. A lot of dropzones require anyone leading a movement group to be an organizer, staff member, and/or to have been approved by the S&TA. This video explains why.
This might be one of the most intense premature parachute openings — while exiting the plane — we've ever seen! As this skydiver was climbing out of the plane, their deployment bag fell out of the container without them noticing. The jumper behind her grabbed the d-bag and threw it out of the plane, the main deployed and ripped the jumper off the step. The canopy and multiple lines were cut by the tail of the plane but – miraculously – the aircraft suffered no damage, and the jumper was able to cutaway and set down safely in the landing area under their reserve canopy.
In a small plane like a Cessna 182, it is pretty much impossible to get in and out without rubbing your gear against the surfaces that can inadvertently disturb your gear. Jumpers need to be incredibly aware of these realities and take them into consideration while packing, boarding the aircraft, climbing to altitude, and preparing to exit the plane.
Given that this jumper knew they were about to get into a small aircraft, they should have been more cautious about their gear in every way possible. While packing and doing gear checks this would include ensuring that their closing loop was tight and their closing pin seated correctly. In the plane this would entail doing whatever they could to minimize how much their rig rubbed against the plane and other jumpers. And, most importantly, prior to the door opening this would include checking their gear and having someone else check it as well. That last step would have prevented the door from ever opening and this situation arising.
The USPA Instructional Rating Manual does not really address this scenario – it discusses what to do if the parachute stays inside the aircraft, if the parachute goes out the door, or if there is a premature deployment during set-up. In this video one of the other jumpers tosses the d-bag out of the plane. We’re not going to "armchair quarterback" that decision; if anything, that jumper gets a lot of credit for immediately reacting and doing something to attempt to save the plane. For the sake of discussion, it should be noted that doing so caused the canopy to strike the horizontal stabilizer on the plane's tail. This could have caused catastrophic damage to the aircraft. However, if the jumper didn’t think they could safely get the jumper back in the plane then they probably made the best call possible.
Had the jumper in the plane noticed the situation sooner, they could have attempted to grab the jumper who was exiting the plane, keep them in the plane, and close the door. We think that would have been the best case scenario in this situation. However, this also poses an important question: at what point do you consider it no longer feasible to attempt to drag a jumper back in rather than push them out and get them away from the plane as soon as possible?
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.
While exiting from a Cessna 182, this wingsuiter’s bootie got caught on the step and he was unable to reach up and release the tension to clear the snag and free himself. The pilot, alone in the plane and unable to release the controls, signaled a suggestion to the jumper – that he use a hook knife to cut apart his wingsuit. The jumper began doing so but grew tired and had to largely focus on staying alert and conscious. After 45 minutes the wingsuit tore and he fell away from the plane. Unfortunately, his arms were completely asleep and his torn suit was covering his handles so all he could do was arch, wait for his AAD to deploy his reserve, and look for a landing area.
"The battery in my camera died shortly into the situation. The result was the wingsuit tearing in half after 45 minutes, and automatic activation device (AAD) deployed the reserve parachute. I landed safely in a small backyard and walked away unharmed."
Arguably, wingsuit exits are a bit more complex than normal skydiving exits – they require different form, different priorities, and different considerations. Most skydivers aren’t worried about making sure their wings are closed, worrying about a tail strike, and fighting the urge to jump as they exit. However, those additional factors aren’t an excuse to paying attention to your equipment and the plane.
This incident came down to one simple factor: the jumper forgot to pay attention to potential snag points. When exiting any aircraft – regardless if you’re a belly jumper, a swooper on a low pass, or a wingsuit pilot – you always need to pay attention to your environment and avoid anything that could snag your equipment. For wingsuiters, who obviously have a lot more fabric on them that could potentially get caught on something, that reality is even more important.
The pilot in this video was pretty heads-up, telling this jumper to get their hook knife out and start going to town on the suit. That being said, the jumper had a hard time getting the job done. This brings up two points.
Simply put, this video could have – and probably would have – been a fatality had this jumper not been using an AAD. His arms were completely asleep, so he couldn’t reach his pilot chute, and his handles were covered by the torn suit, so he couldn’t pull his reserve even if his arms were working. If you don’t jump with an AAD, this is the type of video that should leave you asking one question: ”Why not?”
This wingsuiter had a pilot chute in tow for 8 seconds, which can feel like an eternity in the sky. Due to a weak throw at deployment, the pilot chute got caught in his burble and the bridle created a knot, which prevented the pilot chute from inflating and extracting the deployment bag. The jumper looked over his shoulder, saw that the pilot chute was not inflating, and decided that he had enough altitude to lift the deployment bag out of his container. His main inflated and he landed without any further issues.
With a video like this, one thought that instantly pops into our minds is whether the pilot chute was properly cocked during the pack job, but this jumper is confident he recalls properly cocking his pilot chute.
The jumper was the first to note that he did not fly his legs through the deployment and his body position was less than ideal, creating a burble in which his pilot chute could get caught. He also noted that his weak throw of the pilot chute played a role in allowing it to get sucked into the aforementioned burble.
The way the bridle looped itself around the pilot chute and tied itself in a knot is one of those random unforeseeables that happen in skydiving.
This is an example of the truism regarding how malfunctions typically occur due to more than one issue. If this jumper had better body position on deployment, he may have not created a burble for the PC to get caught in. If he had a stronger throw of the PC, it may have never been sucked into the burble in the first place. Either one of those could have prevented this incident.
This jumper noted that the textbook answer in this situation would have been to go straight to his emergency procedures. He explained that he didn’t go straight to that option because he was confident that he still had altitude to spare and wanted to try one time to get the d-bag out. He explained that he was concerned over a possible two-out with a possible main/reserve entanglement.
This jumper says he had very specific recollection of cocking his pilot chute properly. Had he not been confident about that, it would have certainly been another possible cause for this incident.
Wow, “close call” is an understatement for this incident! This skydiver had a premature opening at break-off while another jumper was above him, luckily avoiding what could have been a fatal mid-air collision by mere feet.
Premature openings happen mostly because of some sort of a gear issue; it could be equipment that wasn’t properly maintained (e.g. a worn out BOC with an elastic that is no longer capable of keeping a pilot chute securely stowed away), equipment that wasn’t designed for a particular discipline (e.g. a container that isn’t designed for freeflying being used for freeflying), or equipment that wasn’t properly checked (e.g., a pack job where the pin wasn’t seated all the way and was easily dislodged by minor contact.)
The jumper who was above the premature opening was in a bad spot; flying directly over his friend. Notably, the jumper who had the premature opening was doing the same exact thing earlier in the jump too – they were flying right over that hybrid and begging to catch a burble or a face full of canopy if one of those jumpers had a preemie.
Most of the causes of premature openings can be addressed before you even get on the plane. Make sure your rig is made for the jump you’re about to do. Make sure it’s being maintained properly. Make sure to get a gear check to ensure everything is where it’s supposed to be and you don’t have a pin that’s a millimeter away from popping or a pilot chute that is going to catch the slightest amount of air and slip out.
Unless you’re taking video for a specific discipline where you need to be directly overhead from a formation or shooting stills for evidence of a record attempt, there’s really not a good reason to fly directly above someone. A wide variety of dangerous situations, ranging from them corking out to them having a premature opening like this one, can make that a bad spot to be flying in.
It doesn't appear to have happened in this video, but it's worth noting that rubbing up against something in the plane or impacting another jumper in the air could also move your pin and make it more likely to give you a preemie.
Nothing to see here, just a skydiver getting slammed by a very painful premature opening as he transitioned to his back to track away. Yup… I felt that one…
The most common reason for this type of incident is gear that is not designed for the type of jumping this individual was partaking in. Younger jumpers, for example, often think they are told not to freefly in rental gear because anyone renting rental gear isn’t ready to freefly. That may partially be true but, most often, the factor more obvious to experienced jumpers is that rental gear typically isn’t freefly-friendly.
Debates over this handle versus that handle, these riser covers over those riser covers are one thing, but some equipment just shouldn’t be used for certain skydives. At the end of the day, different jumps mandate different equipment. However, week after week, we continue to see dangerous incidents that can be attributed to folks who don’t listen to that truism. Whether it’s wingsuit pilots jumping canopies that aren’t made for wingsuitting, freeflyers jumping in rigs without freefly friendly rigs, or rocking t-shirts that are covering up their handles – these are poor decisions that can lead to a very bad day.
A rig that was “freefly-friendly” a decade ago may not deserve that qualifier anymore – and not necessarily because older gear wasn’t made for freeflying. Another factor that needs to be considered is that, as gear gets older, it needs to be inspected more closely. This incident, for example, could have potentially been due to an old BOC that had simply become worn out over time.
While working on "solo head-down," this skydiver had a premature toggle fire in freefall that briefly wrapped around his arm. The toggle fire was sketchy enough, not to mention punching through clouds or wearing a t-shirt that could have covered his handles.
After he deployed his main, the unstowed toggle – predictably – resulted in his canopy not flying straight and in some minor line twists. He quickly reached up, unstowed the other toggle, and managed to get everything under control.
We don’t know anything about the equipment that was being used here but an immediate question that comes to mind is whether this rig was freefly-friendly. Another related question is whether this was possibly an old worn-out container that was simply not up to the task of keeping everything where it’s supposed to be.
Another possible cause for this incident is improper packing technique. If the jumper didn’t take the time to make sure his risers and toggles were properly stowed, this is the type of thing that could absolutely happen.
Even an improperly packed rig shouldn’t have a toggle popping out like this, so the possibility of this being an issue with the container is up there in our minds. Jumpers need to make sure that their gear is suitable for whatever discipline they’re pursuing.
This jumper claims they were working on head-down transitions but this jump looks almost like they were trying for a solo angle… while punching through clouds… with no view of the ground as a reference for the direction of jump run... while jumping with a shirt that is just begging to cover their handles. Suffice to say, there’s a lot to unpack here in addition to the toggle being loose. The fact that all of these were happening suggests to us that this individual needed to be taken aside by more experienced jumpers and shown how to safely progress in the sport.
While skydiving over the Great Pyramids of Giza (we’re humble-bragging for this guy), this wingsuiter deployed and – before even reaching line stretch – there was already a twist in the lines. After fighting it rather poorly and far too long, he finally cutaway at 1,400 feet and was in the saddle on his reserve at 900 feet!
A lot of things could have resulted in these line twists but, as one highly experienced wingsuit pilot pointed out, the fact that the twists were occurring before line stretch indicates that this may be been packing related.
This pilot doesn’t really appear to have slowed down before pitching their pilot chute and that also could have contributed to this incident.
As noted in the “Great Book of Base,” wingsuit pilots want to minimize the amount of time their “parachute spends uninflated, dancing around at line stretch. To do this, one option is to not roll the ‘tail’ (trailing edge) of your parachute so tightly around your lines. The technique of rolling the tail tightly around the lines was not developed, and should probably not be used, for wingsuit flying.” One experienced wingsuiter who viewed this video notes, “I do like 3 twists and leave a giant hole for air to get into the canopy.”
Teem doesn’t endorse any particular manufacturer, but Squirrel has a great section on their website dedicated to teaching pilots about how to safely fly their prom-dresses. (Sorry! We had to!) If you want to check out their in-depth explanation of the topic, check it out here. The short version is this: if you want to minimize deployment complications, bleed off speed before you pitch.
Way too low
Every single experienced wingsuit pilot consulted for this incident write-up had something to add to the conversation. However, without exception, each of them absolutely agreed on one point: this jumper should have chopped earlier. As noted above, he finally cutaway at 1,400 feet and was in the saddle on his reserve at 900 feet.
