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!
Well, starting with the obvious — you're not crazy — this jumper only has one leg! (He had about 100 jumps before losing his leg, 150 after, so this jump was right around jump number 250.) Because he can't control his prosthetic limp, he opts to jump without it. He was doing a hop and pop on a CRW rig, getting ready to do CRW drills by himself. However, as he exits, he attempts to pitch out the door but misses his handle. He then reaches back again, successfully grabs it and pulls it out of the BOC, but doesn't immediately release it. The bridle starts wrapping under his arm and when he realizes it, he tries to get it undone, and finally releases his pilot chute. However, when his canopy finally opens he has a line-over with line twists that starts spinning him up. He finally cuts away and deploys his reserve, but lets go of his reserve handle — and the cable initially tangles up in the deploying reserve lines! Fortunately, it comes out of the lines as the twists start coming undone and he goes on to land safely.
On his second attempt to deploy his main, halfway through doing so, the jumper began to worry about his body position and orientation not being ideal. So, after pulling his pilot chute out, he held onto it instead of immediately tossing it to deploy his main. Doing so released so much of his bridle that it was able to start wrapping under his arm. When he finally lets go all of that mess, his main doesn't deploy cleanly.
We've seen this before (particularly with one badass blonde we dearly love... you know who you are!) where a jumper pulls out their pilot chute, and then rather than give it a strong toss into the air, they hold onto it for a second. When you're a badass with thousands of jumps, know what you're doing, have perfect body position, and have a reason for doing it, that's one thing.
However, when you're a newer jumper whose body position is a hot mess, don't screw around — once that pilot chute is out of the BOC, give it a nice strong toss. We've seen that bridle wrap around a jumper's neck and we've seen it almost deglove someone's arm (deglove = rip all the flesh off and just leave the bone). Just toss it.
This jumper knew almost immediately that his main was not flyable, but he took almost 20 seconds from the time he deployed to the time he chopped. As the USPA pointed out in its "Don't Delay; Cutaway!" campaign a few years back, when you have a spinning malfunction, you're losing altitude a lot faster than you think and every foot of altitude is going to be precious because you need time for your reserve to deploy, need time to deal with any issues with your reserve, and may need time to find a safe place to land if the DZ is no longer an option.
Did anyone else notice that as this jumper's reserve canopy deploys, he lets go of his handles, and the reserve handle and wire fly into his deploying lines?!? We don't think we've ever seen that in a Friday Freakout video and we're very happy that it didn't lead to a much scarier video. However, that could have been a lot worse because that metal wire could have done some damage to the lines, or potentially gotten entangled to the point where it prevented a clean or total deployment of the reserve. Normally we just make fun of people for losing style points when they let go of their handles on a cutaway because the important part is that they did what they had to do to live... but this may seriously present a reason to teach folks to hold onto their handles as part of their emergency procedures.
We went to see how much altitude this jumper lost in the 20 seconds it took him to chop, and to see if he looked at his altimeter to remain aware of his altitude... but then we realized that his altimeter was busted! As he finally gets his pilot chute away from his body, it says he's at 1,000 feet and as he extends his arm to deploy his reserve it very clearly is at ZERO feet. Especially with older analog altimeters, make sure they're set on the ground, tap them to make sure the needle doesn't get stuck on the way to altitude, check them on the climb to altitude to make sure that they're working properly.
These two skydivers did a wagon wheel exit through some clouds (more on that later!). After they let go, one of the jumpers went to their back and suddenly, BAM! Open canopy! He had a very hard opening and was knocked unconscious. Additionally, he suffered a collapsed lung, three broken ribs, and in his words, "Miraculously I didn't break my spine!!!" Fortunately, he woke up in the air under canopy, found the dropzone and landed. He then spent five days in the hospital, three weeks on strong painkillers, and a year of rehabilitation before being able to jump again.
We're just going to directly quote the text that was provided with the submission: "There was no freefly friendly system! And the system had a very loose pocket where the pilot chute is." In other words, this jumper knew full well that this gear was not in proper working order for the type of jump they were doing but decided to jump it anyway. The fact that they were doing a wagon wheel exit — which is notorious for resulting in equipment rubbing up on the airframe — only underscores this issue.
You wouldn't go on a competition belly four-way in a wingsuit and you wouldn't attempt a speed skydive in your baggiest gear. Well, in that vein, you shouldn't be doing a jump where your back is going to be exposed to the wind if you know your BOC elastic is loose and your rig isn't freefly-friendly.
Based on the metric altimeter we're guessing this video did not come from the United States and we don't know what the cloud clearance regulations are wherever they jumped. However, regardless of where it happened, this video shows exactly why jumping through clouds is dangerous. Had that lower jumper been directly under the cameraman, and had that premie happened while he was obscured by the clouds, the cameraman would have had no heads-up that he was about to have a possibly fatal mid-air collision with a premature deployment.
This swooper followed the landing pattern set by the first jumper. Unfortunately, the first person down didn't realize that the wind shifted 180 degrees while the load was in the air. This swooper then realized that he was too low for his normal 450 degree turn, so he took it a little lower and decided to try for a 270 instead. He just went for it, stayed in the dive a little longer than he normally would, and when he realized he was low, he stayed on his rears instead of stabbing out on toggles. The first bounce didn't injure him, but on the second impact with the ground he landed on an outstretched hand and the shock traveled up his arm and shattered his elbow.
This jumper knew that his original plan had fallen apart and he decided to just try and send something anyway. Not only did he know that the winds were different from what he had originally expected, he also knew that he was lower than he wanted to be for that particular turn. Instead of just saying, "I'll get it on the next jump," he went for it without proper planning.
This first part is simple, if your plan falls apart as you come in to do a swoop, just land. Don't push it and don't play it by ear, prioritize your safety and get your swoop in our your next jump. The cost of a jump ticket is cheaper than a ten thousand dollar hospital bill.
Canopy coaches often have new students do a turn at altitude and then stab out just so they get familiar with how much pressure you need to apply to your toggles to pull out of a dive... it's a lot more than most folks think because once that canopy is picking up speed it takes a lot of muscle to get out of that dive. This jumper decided to stay on his rears because they were "afraid that those milliseconds during the switch (from rears to toggles) could make my canopy dive even more." That's a pretty big mistake which suggests that they needed some more coaching.
We don't have much information about this skydive because the video was submitted with minimal comment from the student, who was at a non-US dropzone. (We don't know if it was a USPA affiliate.) This was described as a AFF "Level 6 jump." In short, the student went into a flat spin and the instructor attempted to stop it but largely failed. They then lost control of the student, the instructor sunk out, and watched the student deploy from a hundred feet away. The student reported some line twists but landed safely. Sadly, the incident caused the student to quit skydiving, they stated, "It's too dangerous (maybe I'll go to the wind tunnel)..."
Again, we have minimal information on this jump, but suffice to say that this whole incident appears to have happened due to a instructor who either didn't have the confidence, or the ability, to get in there and stop a rotation that rapidly put their student into the spin cycle. Admittedly, once a student starts spinning, staying on level — let alone get in there and stop the spin — becomes much harder. However, the video is deeply suggestive of an issue with the instruction here.
First, while we know that sometimes a great student suddenly has a brain fart, this jumper does not look like they had the control requisite to pass their Cat C jump. Further, while — yes — the instructor initially attempted to stop the spin, it needs to be noted is that, as one experienced AFF-I put it, "The student never earned the right to be released after that. The instructor should have held on until the student corrected the body position before being released."
We normally love to crack jokes and add some light humor into Friday Freakout, but this is a particularly rough video, and it sadly made someone think that a sport dedicated to safety, is too dangerous for them. The first way this could have been prevented was by the jumper having not been cleared for this level of AFF jump. Further, if this instructor wasn't capable of handling this type of instruction, they shouldn't have been allowed to take a student up. No student should be allowed to go up into the air with an instructor who is incapable of assessing the need for them to intervene in a flat spin and then making that intervention. Lastly, if you know your student is of a body size you cannot fly with, you should have good enough judgment to have someone else take them up.
This group was launching a linked four-way belly exit with outside video. However, seconds after they exit, one of the skydivers had a premature opening that ripped him out of the group! (Seriously though, they had some pretty solid grips on each other because you can see him quite literally get pulled out of the formation.)
There's no video from inside the plane, however it doesn't look like the jumper brushed against the door, and while the jumper had relatively old gear, we were told that on the ground the elasticity of the BOC was checked and it was fine. That means that the pilot chute was sneaking out before these jumpers exited and nobody noticed.
If you've ever jumped with folks who have a wall — or a drawer — filled with medals from winning nationals or worlds, you may notice how they almost look like they have a nervous tic from how often they check their pilot chute. You're getting on the plane, and they're touching the small of their back. The door is about to open to get some air, and they're touching the small of their back. They move around a little trying to get more comfortable, and they're touching the small of their back.
In short, pretty much anytime there's a chance that their pilot chute could have gotten dislodged, or anytime there's a chance for it to catch air, they're double checking to make sure that thing is still safely nestled in their BOC. It's a great habit to develop and once it becomes second nature you can be pretty sure that this type of incident won't happen to you.
Just before break-off on this 2-way belly jump, one jumper got flipped over the other right before "tracking away" — but neither jumper really tracked. When they deployed, they were dangerously close to each other and nearly had a midair collision.
The jumper who submitted the video said that the second jumper failed to turn 180 degrees away and tracked under him. However, from what we're seeing here this was really just poor tracking by both jumpers. As seen best in the second jumper's video (camera 2), the first jumper sees his buddy, waves off, doesn't really create any distance, sinks out a bit, checks his altitude, and deploys. The second jumper at least tries to track a little, but also doesn't get much distance before deploying.
We really hate using cliches on Friday Freakout, but this is one of the most important cliches in skydiving. When it comes to tracking and canopy piloting, you need to make room and consider anyone around you as a threat to your life. These two didn't create space, didn't track, and — evidently — didn't consider the other jumper an immediate threat to their life. As a result they both had super lazy tracks and opened up in each other's faces.
Helicopter jumps are the best! (And that's coming from the writer who once caught his reserve handle on the skid!) But on this help jump from ~4,000 feet, this skydiver deployed his main at around 2,500 feet... but nothing happened! Already low, the jumper went straight to his reserve. As his reserve deploys, the main canopy's deployment bag ended up coming down to him — so he grabbed it, then stowed it between his legs. He's in the saddle around 1,900 feet, lands safely, and promptly reports that he owes some beer!
The jumper didn't tell us what caused this bag lock. However, generally speaking, there are quite a few factors than can cause one. A lot of them are packing related; for example, long line stows can catch and cinch on each other or an improper stow can get pulled into a grommet. Alternatively, they can happen due to poor gear maintenance, namely, an old worn our pilot chute that should have been replaced a long time ago.
Again, a lot of bag locks result from a lack of diligence during packing, or due to folks not paying attention to basic gear maintenance. Both of these are failures that result from laziness. Keep those line stows short, replace your gear when it's getting worn out, and don't rush your packjobs!
This video is a bit on the longer side because we wanted to include the discussion the jumper had on the ground with a staff member from the DZ. They chatted about the fact that, rather than cutting away, the jumper went straight to his reserve. Admittedly, he was rather low and every second matters during a high speed malfunction. And at the end of the day, he did a great job saving his own life. However, he was also lucky that the main didn't deploy and entangle itself with the reserve... because that could have definitely been a bad day.
Well... not to pick on wingsuiters… but seriously folks, it’s like they TRY to find reasons to land off! We love them though and, to be fair, despite what went down here, this jumper made it pretty close to getting back to the dropzone. At break-off, this jumper appears to slow down, flare, deploy… and there’s a tension knot! (A photo of which could be used in a textbook on what malfunctions look like.) The jumper, after some delay, realizes that he’s not going to clear it, chops, takes a second, and deploys his reserve. After some frustrated yelling, he safely lands off.
Tension knots are one of those unpredictable malfunctions that sometimes just happen. Some canopies are more prone to them, and packing errors can cause them because improperly stowed lines can catch and grab onto one another, effectively cinching down as they’re drawn taut on opening.
Also, not untwisting your brake lines can sometimes lead to tension knots; under tension, twisted-up lines can fold up, locking onto themselves or other lines. One thing a rigger who viewed this video suggested is that during that initial snivel, some of those lines may have caught on one another.
This really comes down to diligent packing procedures. Everything from making sure your lines are set down properly, your brake lines are untwisted, and you’re not throwing down your canopy and letting all that work you did flaking everything perfectly isn’t suddenly undone. At the end of the day though, sometimes it’s just bad luck, and that’s why it’s important to remember your emergency procedures.
So, this jumper was low already we think. At one point you can see the analog altimeter on his wrist, and he’s at about 2,500 feet when he unstows his brakes on his main. Then he gets that diving canopy, and then he chops, and then he takes a second before pulling reserve. That’s a lot of altitude getting burned up and, if he had an issue with his reserve, or had he not been jumping over a bunch of farmland, those altitude-eating delays could have resulted in some serious problems.
