Two skydivers nearly collide under canopy as one of them comes into the opposite direction of the landing pattern.
WOW, colliding with another canopy at 300 feet (give or take) will get your heart rate going... and may require a fresh pair of underwear. Luckily there were no entanglements, which could've been fatal at that altitude.
Aside from the generic statement, "stay alert and keep your head on a swivel," there are a few factors that can lead up to an incident like this. We try our best to create proper horizontal and vertical separation between groups when exiting the plane and at break-off, but once we're under canopy there are choices we make that can either increase or reduce the separation we've created for safety during the skydive. If we all try to land in the same spot, or land close to the hangar because we don't want to walk far, or spiral to get down faster, or don't want to get our feet wet in the puddles or pond, then you might find yourself in a situation like this.
Food for thought.
Inflatable jumps are fun — but not much fun when an inflatable alligator puts you into an uncontrollable flat spin, followed by line twists.
Well this escalated quickly! It starts with a skydiver who's off level above his group and attempts to track away on his back at break-off, but the unstable backtrack doesn't provide much horizontal separation.
When he flips over to his belly, not only is there a plane flying below him, but he's facing the same direction that he was facing before break-off — towards the center of the formation — so he turns 180 degrees and deploys his parachute. On opening, his canopy has a 90 degree turn to the left, which has him heading directly towards another canopy opening nearby (due to lack of separation).
With very little reaction time to avoid the inevitable, both canopies collide. Luckily there was no entanglement or body collision, and both jumpers land safely. The only minor casualty was two small cuts on the nose of the canopy.
There are several takeaways from this incident:
— Stay on level with your group
— Turn 180 degrees from the center of formation at break-off
— Don't rely on backtracking to get proper horizontal separation from your group. At break-off, clear the airspace above and behind you, then flip to your belly and track away (again, 180 degrees from the center of the formation)
A novice wingsuiter has a pilot chute hesitation on deployment, which lasts 6 seconds before finally deploying the main canopy. It looks like the bridle wrapped around the pilot chute, which choked it off (and then got caught in the burble of the wingsuit?).
Ummm, HOLY $#%&!!! This is one of the scariest and craziest Friday Freakout videos I've seen in a while.
On a 4-way formation skydive, one of the skydivers sinks out below the formation and loses sight of the formation as they punch through thick clouds. Not good. At break-off, the low jumper pulls in place without tracking away, narrowly missing the other jumpers above him as his parachute opens. Luckily the remaining 3-way above him broke off when they did, otherwise they might have been seriously injured or killed from that impact.
As scary as this incident is, it highlights the importance of keeping an eye on the formation if you sink out, tracking away from the formation regardless of whether you're in the formation or below it, and not jumping through clouds.
Whoa, this is crazy close and may require fresh underwear. I wasn't provided any details about this incident, but it appears there wasn't enough exit separation between groups or this jumper tracked over another group at break-off.
Remember that the purpose of break-off is to get proper horizontal separation from your group, but no to track into another group's airspace.
Pop Quiz: Is this 1) a skydiver losing control, 2) a "simulation" for a TV show or 3) a breakdance routine?
A skydiver did a hop 'n pop on the first load of the day, and as he deployed his canopy, he noticed another plane underneath him flying over the DZ.
