This swooper was jumping with 28 lbs of weight on a 69 sq. ft. canopy (3.0 wing load) during the 2019 USPA Canopy Piloting Nationals at Skydive Paraclete XP. During a run at the comp, he opened into some fun tension knots! He couldn't clear the malfunction on his first attempt due to the high G-forces, so he crawled his hands up the left riser to get above the slinks and pull down to try to collapse the canopy. No go. After exhausting himself, he chopped and landed safely on his reserve. Spoiler alert: he got back in the sky on borrowed gear and took 2nd place in the Advanced category!
These are a hard to predict malfunction. Packing errors can cause them: if lines are not properly stowed, they can inadvertently cinch down on one another as they are drawn taut on opening. One reason less experienced jumpers get tension knots is that their brake lines are twisted. Under tension, twisted up lines can fold under - and lock onto - themselves or another set of lines. Lastly, certain canopies just seem to be more prone and likely to encounter tension knots.
The jumper stated he believes there may have been a packing issue. If that was the case then, as always, it could have been prevented through non-complacent, diligent packing. He also said that a contributing factor may have been that his lines were gritty and wet from a previous jump, which brings up gear maintenance. Finally, one note another swooper mentioned, is that jumpers should ensure their slider is firmly seated against the canopy at the bottom of the lines before they cocoon it.
It’s unlikely a jumper at this level didn’t ensure his brake lines were in working order. But, while discussing tension knots, this point should be made. While packing, jumpers should examine their brake lines and – if needed – take the extra 2-3 minutes to straighten them all the way down from the attachment points to the toggles.
This jumper attempted to clear the knot by collapsing the canopy to release line tension - a strategy that had worked for him before. He knew his altitude and – even after fighting this malfunction for a bit – he was high enough to regain stability before deploying his reserve. However, jumpers should be cautious about fighting a malfunction like this for so long because, especially under a high-performance canopy, they can be losing altitude very rapidly.
We normally keep the identities of Friday Freakout submissions confidential. We didn’t anonymize this submission because our boy Brian Redfield is a badass and – with his permission – we wanted to celebrate how this story ended. After this chop, Brian was unable to recover his canopy and it looked like his competition was over. However, the community came together to get back in the air. He wound up on gear borrowed from another competitor and took 2nd place in the Advanced category. (How’s that for a feel-good story!?!) Congrats bud!
This BASE jumper got bored during the Covid-19 quarantine and decided to jump some objects, but the second jump of the day didn't quite go as planned. He had an object strike and his parachute got stuck on the antenna, but he eventually made it down safely.
From this POV, it’s hard to tell if conditions or rigging played a role in this incident -- it is completely possible that these were a factor.
BASE jumping is an inherently dangerous activity and several experienced BASE jumpers who viewed this video said that it may have simply been bad luck. One of those individuals noted that there are only two types of BASE jumpers: those who have had bad luck on a jump and those who will. Another noted that the jumper should be realistic, be thankful that his bad luck was limited to an object strike and should turn this into a learning experience.
As previously noted, it’s hard to tell about conditions or rigging but one experienced BASE jumper stated that – if those two factors were not an issue – that they “can guarantee his brake settings are not deep enough.”
On a 5-way helicopter jump, two of the skydivers tracked in the same direction and opened close to each other. The jumper who's filming reacted quickly, grabbed their rears and managed to avoid a mid-air collision.
In general, this jump plan seems to have been somewhat questionable. One instructor who viewed this clip noted that it appeared as if their dive plan was “Let’s exit, try and get together, and then track away and hope for the best.”
When everyone is off-level and separated like this, it can be hard to know where to track. (Which goes back to why there was some bad planning going on.)
Generally speaking, exits from a helicopter or a balloon are from lower altitudes and don't give you enough time to safely build up enough speed to move around, meet up with friends, and then track away. That's why some DZ’s limit group sizes that can jump together on helicopters and balloons. If this jump had just been 2 or 3 people, it would have been a lot easier to know everyone’s location and it would have been a lot easier to track accordingly to create separation.
While this jumper did check their air space before waving off and deploying, it doesn't appear that they checked their air space at break-off and may have tracked in the same direction as one of the other two jumpers who couldn't be seen in the frame at break-off. Or vice versa -- perhaps one of the other two jumpers out of frame tracked into this jumpers path and didn't check their air space below them.
Before deploying, some experienced jumpers suggest do a barrel roll so that they know exactly what is below, off to their sides, and above them. That additional situational awareness can tell a jumper to track for an extra second or two or take it a little lower for clear air space if need be. It can also give them information regarding where everyone else is so that, if they open up off heading, they’re not surprised when they see someone else in their vicinity.
After an uneventful wingsuit flight this jumper deployed his main and found himself with a line over that sent him spinning. Unable to fly the canopy, he cutaway and – after dealing with some line twists – landed without further incident.
It’s impossible to see what caused the line-over but they typically occur as a result of a rough deployment, bad body position, packing errors, and a few other culprits.
Line twists are somewhat common for wingsuitters on the best of days and during a cutaway they’re that much more likely to occur.
If the line-over was the result of a packing error, the solution is obviously better packing! Take your time, don’t rush, don’t get complacent… and just because you’re jumping a wingsuit-friendly, docile, 7-cell canopy don’t think you can just shove it in the bag.
If the line-over was the result of a bad deployment, the solution is ensuring that you’re in a good, stable, symmetric body position. In a wingsuit, maintaining body symmetry during a deployment is even more important than it is during a regular skydive — the extra fabric and drag are going to react very quickly to asymmetric conditions.
This jumper delayed cutting away his main quite a bit even though it was quickly obvious that this canopy was not flyable. Generally, jumpers should cutaway early in order to provide themselves as much time as possible to deal with other unexpected complications such as line twists or finding a safe place to land.
In the video it appears that this individual pulled his reserve handle almost at the same exact time as his cutaway handle. Fortunately, this didn’t result in any further issues, but it's a bad habit to develop because it creates the potential for an out-of-sequence deployment where the reserve deploys before the main has been fully detached.
This one’s simple: Two jumpers weren’t paying attention under canopy, didn’t see each another and had a mid-air collision that – thankfully – didn’t result in a wrap up or any injuries.
The jumper with the red canopy was not paying attention to what was going on around him and was flying almost directly at the cameraman. That being said, the cameraman was also doing a poor job of looking around to see what everyone else was doing; he seemed primarily concerned with his landing pattern.
Both jumpers were guilty of not staying alert regarding their surroundings. The standard phrase used while teaching skydivers about situational awareness is that they should “keep their head on a swivel.” The idea is that jumpers should constantly be looking around them in 360 degrees to stay informed about what other canopies are doing around them.
Greg Windmiller once explained how the head on a swivel idea is sometimes taken too literally by jumpers who wind up simply glancing around without allowing their brains to process what they’re seeing. The cameraman on this jump may have done that. He looked right, saw the jumper coming at him, looked away for a half second, and then his head snaps back to his right having finally processed what his eyes had told him.
While climbing down to hang from a helicopter, this jumper’s chest strap and reserve cable both snagged on a skid connection point (used for ground handling wheels), leaving him suspended from the skid. The snagged cable extracted the reserve pin and initiated the deployment of the reserve pilot chute. Jumpers on the opposite side saw the pilot chute and told the jumper to let go. He managed to un-snag the chest strap and then, after a moment of panic, realized that the deployed reserve meant his reserve cable had a free running end. He let go, fell away from the helicopter, flipped onto his belly before his reserve inflated, and landed without incident.
At the time, this jumper was relatively new. He had under 100 jumps and had only recently gained his B License. He had learned about snag hazards and the importance of watching his handles, but later admitted he was not fully cognizant of the dangers. The jumper believed that, because he had soft handles and not a D-ring, he wasn’t at high risk. He didn't believe that the small amount of cable exposed between his handle and the housing could snag.
The jumpers were rushing out to the helicopter (“GET TO THE CHOPPA!”) to make a sunset load, and were not given a familiarization with the aircraft. The first time they had a chance to look at the skids was as they were boarding.
Had this jumper paid more attention to the skid as he was climbing out, he would have seen the four large exposed connection points that posed a major snag hazard and could have avoided sliding across them as he went to hang.
Anytime a skydiver is jumping out of an aircraft for the first time (BEER!) they should be given the opportunity to examine it on the ground. Aircraft familiarization should never be bypassed to save time.
Some helicopter operators do not allow jumpers to hang from the skids to prevent exactly this type of incident. These types of exits are fun and provide for fantastic videos, but the inherent dangers should be noted.
The jumper in this video is actually me, Zej Moczydlowski, one of the writer's for our Friday Freakout series. I believe sharing these clips demonstrates how strongly we, as a company, believe in the importance of learning from one another. Many jumpers we approach for copies of their videos are hesitant, nervous, or embarrassed. But the goal of Friday Freakout is to provide a tool which assists in the education of jumpers and make the community at large safer. We hope our willingness to show our own freakouts will encourage others to share their experiences.
This canopy collision occurred on a big-way jump during the Vertical World Record tryouts. This skydiver tracked away at break-off and, after deploying, had an off-heading opening towards another jumper who was on the same level. The other jumper was fighting some sort of a malfunction and couldn't control their canopy. They collided but, thankfully, didn't get wrapped up in one another’s canopies. Their canopies broke away and remained inflated.
From the video, the biggest thing is that upon opening the canopy turned 180+ degrees towards another jumper.
Off-heading openings occur for a variety of reasons:
Whatever the cause of that off-heading opening, it aimed this skydiver directly at someone else.
The other factor in play was that the second jumper appears to have been fighting a malfunction, effectively leaving them unable to attempt to avoid the oncoming canopy.
The real issue would appear to be the fact that the canopy turned off heading on deployment. When you have tons of people in the air, it can get dangerous. Whether this was body position, packing error or bad control of the opening, it's something that big-way jumpers need to be aware of because in those situations there's always going to be people around you in your air space.
Pack carefully, make sure you're stable and in good body position when you pitch, and control your opening to stay on heading.
On a big-way, everyone needs to track as if everyone else is trying to kill them and it has to be done in multiple stages. The idea being that the outside group breaks off at a certain altitude and tracks like hell to pull at a certain altitude, then the next group, etc. This probably wasn't the reason for this incident but it's worth mentioning.
Stay sexy, stay safe! Blue skies everyone!
These jumpers exited at 3,000ft AGL and planned to have the video flyer film the deployment. The jumper being filmed - who reportedly had around 50 jumps - became unstable on exit, deployed while on his back, and the bridle wrapped around his neck. He could not regain stability or unwrap the bridle, did not execute his emergency procedures, and his manually set AAD fired at 1,400ft AGL.
The jumpers do not exit cleanly and collide. On a higher altitude jump this would have been nothing more than incidental contact. However, the low-altitude nature of this jump made the unstable exit a much more significant issue.
Most jumpers with around 50 jumps have not completed many hop-and-pops and the lowest most have jumped is 3,500 ft AGL during their second clear-and-pull during AFF. This factor almost certainly added to the stress level on the jump.
This jumper freaked out, continued to attempt to clear the bridle, never went to reserve, and had an AAD fire because he forgot his emergency procedures.
This was an inexperienced jumper with only around fifty jumps. The decision to get out as a two-way, from 3,000 ft AGL, was not a good one. Further, if the intent was to film the deployment, that could have been completed from the door of an aircraft.
The USPA Skydivers Information Manual notes that the minimum opening altitude for A-license holders is 3,000 feet AGL and 2,500 feet AGL for B-license holders. Based on jump numbers this jumper had an A-license or, at most, a B-license. That being the case, he was either getting out at his minimum opening altitude (which would be a violation of USPA Basic Safety Requirements) or only 500 feet above. If it was the latter, he was still at an altitude where he should not have been exiting with another jumper.
This jumper had a high-speed malfunction – effectively a horse shoe – and should have initiated emergency procedures. Newer jumpers should be consistently examined on their EP’s to ensure they will take the correct actions in such an incident.
This was a training jump for the 1st FAI WS World Cup, so both these jumpers were going pretty balls to the wall. When it came to break off, this individual put himself into an uncontrollable roll which then turned into an uncontrollable spin. He had started the jump barely above break off altitude and knew he didn’t have a lot of time to get stable. So, he deployed his main and – predictably – there were some gnarly line twists. After one look he realized that there was no salvaging it. He actually meant to cut away faster, but his head went between the risers and the lines got caught on a comms unit. He (eventually) managed to get that issue resolved, chopped, and rode the reserve in.
From the second camera view, it appears that this wingsuit pilot stopped flying symmetrically and put himself into an uncontrolled roll. He doesn’t really appear to attempt to regain stability and winds up having to pitch while rolling and spinning through the sky. Once he made the decision to deploy in that situation, the line twists were somewhat inevitable.
This jumper was flying a fully-elliptical Aerodyne Zulu 122, loaded well above 1.5:1. In the words of the wingsuit pilot: "it was a terrible choice of canopy." Generally speaking, it’s recommended that wingsuiters use a non-elliptical canopy loaded at a 1.3:1 or lower and many experts suggest a 7-cell over a 9-cell.
This wingsuiter went from having a bad day to a worse day. As we’ve noted before, wingsuit instructors use the phrase “BANANA, BANANA, BANANA!” to teach students how to react to such situations. From what we see in this video, he didn’t really make much effort to regain stability once he went into that roll. But – as previously noted – he was concerned about altitude and decided it would be better to deploy the main to get out of freefall; never a bad choice. Because he was unstable when he pitched, he knew what would happen next. In his words:
“I knew I was going to chop even before I pitched my main.”
The jumper noted that “An important element of this jump was that it began just above break-off altitude -- approximately 4500 feet or so, leaving very little altitude for me to spend trying to sort this out.” Had they started this jump at a more appropriate altitude, he may have remained calmer and had more time to get stable again.
If you’re going to wear a wingsuit, you should be packing a canopy appropriate for that discipline. As mentioned above, it’s recommended that wingsuiters use a non-elliptical canopy loaded at a 1.3:1 or lower and many experts suggest a 7-cell over a 9-cell.
We rarely reveal the names of the individuals who submit videos, but this jumper said it was okay. So, we wanted to thank Steve Hubbard, the USPA Director of Competition and Records, for having sent it our way. As we’ve previously noted, our Friday Freakout series is intended to provide lessons learned to the community. Getting a submission from someone at USPA – an organization which is similarly dedicated to promoting safe skydiving – tells us that at least some of you recognize what we’re trying to do, haha! 😉
