This jumper explains that this video was his first attempt at a 270° turn. Well, he was still pretty far away from the dropzone, started his turn pretty high, and then as he levelled out he was looking straight at some power lines! He did a dangerous low turn to his left to set down between the power lines and a building, and was lucky to walk away.
This jumper explained that he was trying to learn how to do a 270° swoop. Someone who is just learning a turn, and arguably anyone who isn't a super experienced and current canopy pilot that knows exactly how much altitude and room they need, shouldn't be doing a turn over a ton of dangerous obstacles like buildings, cars, roads, and power lines!
Everyone wants to learn how to fly their canopy across a pond and impress all the gals and guys on the dropzone. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to take their time, spend some cash, and learn from the professionals who know the ins and outs of how to swoop well and swoop safely. Taking a few canopy courses will prevent incidents like this because professional instructors don't just teach how to handle your wing. They also teach you about the importance of practicing your turns at altitude and ensuring you're setting up in the right air space. Further, they will underscore some common sense stuff like why — especially while learning a turn — you should be doing hop and pops that allow you to practice with minimal canopy traffic, and let you ensure that you exit in a spot from which you'll be able to do your turn and land safely on the dropzone!
After what looks like a bit of a zoo jump, these jumpers wound up very far off the dropzone. They appear to have attempted to get back to the landing area, and when they realized they couldn’t, were forced to land off. This jumper got very lucky and, with very few options to pick from – and a lot of power lines and telephone lines around – managed to set down in a backyard… but clipped a tree in the process, probably because he was bailing at the last second to avoid the fence or a tree!
Spotting Fail
The jumper who submitted this video was the first to admit, "My job to check spot…Failed. Whole group landed off." That's as succinct a point as can be made and we'll leave it at that!
Check Your Spot!
Never trust the green light and never trust the group in front of you. Before you get out of the plane, if you're the first person getting out for your group, take a look down and make sure you're getting out close enough to the dropzone to get back safely. If the group behind you starts yelling at you to get out, tell them that the green light came on too early and that you're not getting out until you're in a safe location to do so. You owe it to yourself, and to the rest of your group who are depending on you to make the decision for them. If you're unfamiliar with the dropzone or uncomfortable checking the spot, ask someone who is from the area to do it. Tandem videographers are particularly great about helping out with this!
Earlier Choices/Situational Awareness
When you know you’re not going to make it to the dropzone, you need to start looking around immediately and finding the best opportunity for where you can land. Every second that you’re losing altitude, you’re also losing options. The earlier you make a decision, the more likely you are to find a safe spot to set down. (That matters even more when you’re flying a performance canopy which is going to need a bit more room to land.) Further, when you find yourself in a bad spot, it’s important to look around for ALL your options. You know how in the briefing the flight attendants tell you that in an emergency, the closest exit may be behind you? Well, that applies here as well! One thing we never see this jumper do is look behind themselves to see if there were any good landing options in the other direction.*
Author’s Note*
Fun fact! This was the dropzone where the post author/editor had his first off-landing! He wound up trusting the group ahead of him, who had gotten out without checking the spot, and it turns out the green light had come on early. He was in the same area as these jumpers and will be the first to admit there are not a lot of great options. However, he brings up the point about looking in the other direction because that’s where he landed, and, at least five or six years ago, there were a few spots that were a bit better than where these jumpers landed.
With just over 200 jumps under his belt, this skydiver had a rough landing due to a 180 degree turn and target fixation. You can hear him say, "this is gonna be tight!" once he realized he would have to make a more aggressive turn — perhaps more than he was comfortable with — in order to land into the wind. Rather than following a standard landing pattern with 90 degree turns, he did a 180 degree toggle turn that pointed him towards a group of trees. Then, despite having some clear space to his left, he turned into the trees at the last second, which resulted in an impact that broke his ankle along with some cuts and bruises.
There were a variety of notable issues with this jumper's canopy piloting:
First, he appears to have started his downwind leg a little late, which put him into a position where he felt he needed to do a turn to put himself into the landing area facing into the wind.
Second, he explained that he was scared to turn low, so he turned early and aggressively (he held down the right toggle for something like 8 seconds) which resulted in him having fewer options.
Third, he was the first to admit that he got target fixation. Even though he was lined up for a break in the trees on the left, at the last second you see him actually turn right... and by that we mean that he both turned to the right, and right into the trees!
Had this jumper remembered his landing priorities, he'd likely have been in a far better position. Arguably, he prioritized landing priority four (land into the wind) and to do so he turned towards a treeline that he wasn't sure he could avoid. That led to a domino effect. He ended up failing landing priority one (landing with a level wing) because his target fixation resulted in him turning his canopy to the right at the last second. The target fixation which led to him failing landing priority one also made him turn away from the breaks in the treeline, and right into the trees, so he failed landing priority two (land clear of obstacles).
This seems like an obvious answer but there are some old-school jumpers out there who tell younger jumpers that canopy coaching is a waste of money. First off, just... no. Every jumper, no matter the skill level, can always benefit from more training. In this situation, had this jumper taken a good canopy course, he would have likely been taught how to use flat turns and harness turns which, when properly practiced and utilized, can be safer at lower altitudes and could have let him take his downwind leg a bit longer. Canopy coaching also talks a lot about planning and anticipation. Learning more about that would have taught him to realize way earlier that he needed to make some minor adjustments to steer away from the tree line and aim for the breaks on the left or right side of the trees.
In his explanation of what he thinks happened, the jumper noted that the wind socks on the opposite side of the lower field were going in the opposite direction of the one he landed by. He thinks that he actually may have been flying downwind on final. However, given the direction of the sock right by him, we don't really think that was the case.
After punching through clouds and breaking off from a 3-way jump (without much of a track), this jumper sees a canopy deploying in front of him, which was another jumper from the group exiting after him. The other jumper appears to pull on his left toggle as the canopy was inflating, which may have helped avoid a head-on collision. Some jumpers might say "that's NOT a close call," but let's be honest, this should NOT be a normal proximity for canopy openings — this was pretty damn close, and fortunately there was no collision!
Initially, we thought the jumper coming down was the third jumper from the original group. However, we don't think that was the case because that jumper had a lot of white on his suit, and this jumper did not. This was likely a jumper from the following exit group, who got out way too soon, busting through and almost nailing the folks who exited before him!
Again, we have no video to prove this point, but it seems like another group chased this group out the door. To prevent that, you need to know how much time to give the group in front of you based on ground speed and then just make sure to take your time, and count slowly. What we think in our heads as “one------two------three------four------five------six” is actually “one!two!three!four!five!six!” There are a few ways to address that issue. One is to count out loud. By verbalizing one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, etc. and nodding your head to the rhythm of each syllable, you’ll force yourself to slow down. For newer jumpers, another method is to hold your fingers out in front of your face and count out loud while counting on them; combining verbalization with a physical action also tends to help jumpers slow down their count.
As this cameraman hits the cloud layer, he should be tracking away from the rest of his group. However, it looks like he doesn't really track much at all. He appears to turn to his right, then turns back to his left, and doesn't seem to track. This is likely because, without any visible references, he didn't really know whether or not he had properly turned away from the rest of the group. When you can't see the ground nor the other jumpers, it's kind of hard to know what direction you're moving in.
We just talked about not jumping through clouds two weeks ago! In that video, there was a premature deployment which would have been impossible to see by jumpers above, creating an obviously dangerous situation. The clouds weren't the cause of that incident, but they were certainly a huge danger. In today's video, these jumpers hit break off altitude while in a cloud layer and had no references when they turned and track. If these jumpers had checked the spot and seen the cloud layer, they should have asked for a go-around or ridden the plane down. Also, as we've noted before, they wouldn't be violating Federal Aviation Regulations Part 105.17 and putting the pilot's license at risk!
This videographer was filming FS scrambles when, on exit, one of the jumpers (the inside center in the light blue jumpsuit) failed to secure their chinstrap and lost their helmet! The jumper also lost the ability to see the group due to the 120 mph wind in his eyes, and ended up sinking out low on the group. Unfortunately, unable to see his altimeter — and evidently jumping without an audible backup — he deployed his main based on when he "thought" he was at the proper altitude. It turns out he was still above 6,000 feet and the cameraman, who didn't see the canopy coming at him, clipped the top of the jumper's canopy. The cameraman was worried about his legs, but he was fine and was able to keep jumping. The jumper who lost their helmet landed their main despite notable damage to the topskin.
This whole incident was the result of a jumper's failure to secure the chin strap on his helmet. While we love to have big wordy explanations that make us feel smart, it's really just that simple. Had this jumper checked to make sure the helmet was secure prior to exiting, this whole incident wouldn't have happened.
While in the the plane, everyone thinks about — or at least should be thinking about! — checking their chest strap routing, making sure their pilot chute is properly in their BOC, getting a pin check, etc. The helmet chin strap is an item that a lot of us just don't consider from a safety perspective... but it should be. This video does an excellent job demonstrating why, during your gear checks, you should take a second to check anything which — if lost — could make your jump dangerous. This seems like a very basic point, but we've been on jumps where a jumper made sure to tie their shoes real tight... and then lost their altimeter because they didn't make sure it was fastened securely.
Obviously an audible altimeter wasn't helpful in this case since the jumper lost his helmet. However, it's worth noting that some belly jumpers think that audible altimeters are a waste of money that freeflyers buy because they're bad at maintaining altitude awareness. Well, this jump shows a perfect example of why having an audible as a backup makes sense and is worth the investment. You never know when your primary write-mounted alti is going to break, you never know when someone is going to rip it off your wrist, and you never know when you're going to lose the ability to read it. At the end of the day, skydiving is an inherently dangerous activity made safe because we try to find ways to mitigate every possible danger. When you think about it that way, a backup, which allows you to know your altitude through a different form of sensory input makes a lot of sense... right!?
While jumping on a particularly cloudy day — more on that later! — these two skydivers with around 100 jumps each were excited to do a wagon wheel exit. They were rushing a bit, didn't even open the door all the way, and as the top jumper was setting up, they brushed their rig against the door. That popped the flap on their main, exposing the pin. Then, as they exited, he rubbed the pin against the door, releasing his d-bag. A moment later his pilot chute was pulled loose and led to a premature deployment around 12,000 feet. Everyone was okay and they both landed safely.
These relatively new jumpers were excited and openly admitted that they were rushing. They didn't check the spot — not that they would have seen anything through those clouds — and were busy setting up the wagon wheel in the door. By feeling like they had to get out the door as quickly as possible, they became careless and stopped paying attention to some rather basic exit considerations like opening the door fully and not rubbing their containers against the plane.
This piece of advice can probably apply to at least 50% of the incident write-ups we do for our Friday Freakout series, but it's particularly useful for newer jumpers who are still REALLY excited about doing their first horny gorilla, wagon wheel, etc. Take a breath and calm down! That one extra second in the door isn't going to affect the rest of the plane but it could prevent some pretty serious issues or malfunctions.
Some jumpers don't realize that, if you know you're going to need a few extra seconds to set up your exit, that you can communicate with the pilot to give you the green light a little bit prior to when they would normally turn it on. This is more typically done by larger belly groups which know that trying to put four people outside and three people inside the door is going to eat up the jump run. (Some freeflyers will deny that it actually happens, but we swear that good belly organizers do it, haha.) However, exits like a wagon wheel, a magic carpet ride, etc., require some time to set up, so it's not crazy to request a prior!
This jump is exactly why you shouldn't jump through clouds. Consider the following hypothetical: say that this jumper had their premature opening a little lower. Imagine the jumpers behind him couldn't see that his canopy had opened. And so they get out, have no reference to jump run because of the clouds, and end up coming down on top of him. That's a potentially fatal incident.
These jumpers shouldn't have exited. They had no idea where they were, had no idea what was happening below them, and were probably just trusting the pilot that they were in the right place. If there had been another aircraft or helicopter under those clouds, (it HAS happened before,) they would have been clueless. If the cloud layer is deeper than they thought, they might be forced to deploy their mains but not be able to see where their buddy went. If the pilot had bumped the light 2 miles early and they were over the ocean, they would have been clueless.
So, generally speaking, punching clouds is dangerous because they obstruct your view of the air space below you, obstruct your view of other jumpers around you, and obstruct the view of you by those who are above.
This also looks like a pretty blatant violation of Federal Aviation Regulations Part 105.17 which says that "No person may conduct a parachute operation, and no pilot in command of an aircraft may allow a parachute operation to be conducted from that aircraft... into or through a cloud."
As this wingsuiter deployed his main canopy... nothing happened! Realizing that he was experiencing a high-speed malfunction, the jumper followed his emergency procedures: cutaway and pulled his reserve. However, somehow, his pilot chute managed to get caught in the deploying reserve, the lines from his main snagged on his Cookie G3 side plate, and the d-bag with this main canopy ended up dangling between his legs for the duration of the canopy flight until landing. This jumper decided to refrain from unstowing his brakes because he was comfortable landing on his rear risers, and feared that the surge created by unstowing his brakes — or any big movement — might result in his main canopy finally deploying and causing further complications. Fortunately, he was able to land safely on his rears.
This jumper admitted that this was only his second time using that particular main canopy in his container and that "its not technically recommended by the manufacturer since its too bulky." So, in other words, this jumper knew that the manufacturer did not recommend using that size canopy in that size container, and decided to jump something that wasn't appropriate.
One other possibility is that the jumper didn't give his pilot chute a good strong pitch and left it in the larger than normal burble created behind a wingsuit. When this happens, the pilot chute can just spin around in that burble and never actually leave the wingsuiter's back. This would potentially account for why his pilot chute actually ended up getting caught in his reserve as it deployed. The pilot chute may have been caught up in the burble, with the d-bag stuck in his container, and as the reserve deployed the pilot chute may have been yanked up with the reserve.
The folks who make skydiving gear know what they're doing. They do it for a living, they are meticulous in the design and testing process, and they take their jobs seriously because our lives depend on them only putting out products that are capable of saving lives when jumpers decide to participate in an activity which, by its basic nature, is dangerous. When they say that a piece of equipment isn't designed to work with another piece of equipment, it's NOT because they are trying to make you downsize more often and spend more money — it's because they don't want anyone dying while using their equipment! These aren't arbitrary recommendations, these are intended as life-saving instructions which you ignore at your own risk. This jumper knowingly ignored manufacturer recommendations and was very lucky to have walked away from this incident.
We're pretty sure that as this jumper lands... he says, "Dude, this is not my reserve!" There are two equally scary propositions that may arise from that statement. Either the jumper didn't know what reserve he had in his container or his rigger put the wrong reserve in when he was repacking the container. The former seems to be far more likely but either way, that comment is a big red flag that something was wrong here!
This AFF student was looking pretty good right up until pull time, then the Pucker Factor got turned up to 12 and the knob broke off. While she reached back to grab her pilot chute, she got a little wobbly and the pilot chute wrapped around her ankle. Her deployment bag left the container, but couldn't extract due to the snagged pilot chute, and the lines got entangled around her body. The instructor came in to help unwrap the bridle from her foot, but he wasn't able to untangle the mess and the lines ended up wrapping around his head/neck! 😳 As the instructor deployed her reserve, his helmet and neck were still caught in the lines, resulting in his head almost being ripped off! Fortunately, he remained conscious, landed safely, and the resulting injuries were limited to facial lacerations and bruising. Given his laugh at the end of the video, his sense of humor remained intact too!
While this incident is crazy intense, the issue from which everything stemmed was simple: bad body position. The student was doing pretty well but when she went to pitch, she was kicking her legs. Her legs were bent really far in towards her butt, resulting in the pilot chute wrapping itself around her ankle.
We touch on this pretty often — student/rental gear is never perfectly sized for the individual and this can create some sketchy situations. One AFF-I who reviewed this video noted that because the container was so huge on this student, that her pilot chute was incredibly far down her body and she was effectively forced to reach halfway down her butt crack to reach her pilot chute. This likely contributed both to her instability and the likelihood of her pilot chute snagging on her leg.
Again, this is a super simple issue which could have been prevented through very basic body position corrections. If the student had her legs out a little more and had she not been bent at the torso/head-low, this incident probably wouldn't have happened. A similar argument could be made about how, if her container had been smaller and more appropriate for someone of her size, this may not have gone down the way it did.
This instructor was pretty heads-up (no, that's not a pun about him almost being decapitated by the lines around his neck 😳). There's an argument that he should have been a little closer to the student, but she was doing pretty well. More importantly, when something went wrong, he was there immediately and pulled her reserve. Then, despite taking a pretty serious hit to the head and neck by her lines, he maintained altitude awareness and went directly to his reserve rather than deploy his main due to his low altitude. All in all, he saved his student, and then he saved himself. That's the job.
The details submitted with this video were a little inaccurate and the "meat missile" jumper in this video reached out to clarify the details. Here's what they had to say:
"I am an AFF instructor and D license skydiver with 715 jumps.. nearly 600 belly skydives. I was not trying to sit fly to the formation. I hadn’t done a belly jump in about a month and am not used to chasing formations without a jumpsuit. I tried to slow down from a dive and overrated and lost control. I’m definitely embarrassed about it, but it happened. Just wanted to give you my side of the story!"
These skydivers launched a linked 3-way belly formation and the fourth jumper was meant to chase the group and break into the formation, with the goal of transitioning the belly round to a (sit) campfire. Unfortunately, the chaser — apparently worried that too much vertical distance had opened up between themselves and the rest of the group — allegedly decided go into a sit-fly to get there faster! As you might expect with an inexperience group, the chaser turned into a plant-based meat missile and just barely missed hitting the group very hard.
The jury is still out on whether plant-based meat missiles are better or worse than regular meat missiles, but one thing is for sure... this one was spicy!
Much like not crossing the streams in Ghostbusters, skydivers — and especially inexperienced jumpers — should typically not cross disciplines in a situation like this one. By going into a vertical orientation (fast fall rate) while the rest of the group was in a horizontal orientation (slower fall rate), the chaser made the speed difference between themselves and the group pretty significant. If a belly group is falling at 120mph, and a freeflyer is falling at 150mph or more, that's still 200lbs of skydiver slamming into someone at 30mph. That's more than enough to leave someone unconscious... or worse.
We've all been there before. You get out, realize you're much higher than the group, and REALLY want to get down to the group. The urge to pick up speed and get down is going to be there. You don't want to miss out on the jump. You don't want to ruin everyone else's jump because you were part of the dive flow. It sucks, but for your safety, and for the safety of everyone else on the jump, you need to get down there in a safe and controlled manner, then level-slot-and-dock. LEVEL. SLOT. DOCK.
The submission for this video stated that the jumper made a conscious decision to go into sit-fly in order to get down to the group. We have a sneaking suspicion that this may have actually just been a bad exit. Only ten seconds into a jump, barely off the hill, it seems unlikely that the jumper would have had time to have gotten stable on their belly, seen the distance between them and the group, and decided to go into a sit. This suspicion is supported by how the jumper doesn't appear in a stable sit at all and is tumbling onto their back as they pass the group. We weren't there so we don't know, but if that was the case, then this jump also demonstrates why, when jumping together, inexperienced jumpers should keep the groups small and, if they're going to jump together, may want to consider a linked exit.
