This scary canopy collision occurred at 400 feet between a jumper who was flying a predictable landing pattern and a swooper who was unknowingly practicing his 180-degree turns in the standard (non-high performance) landing area. The swooper's canopy clipped the other jumper's feet, but fortunately the canopy didn't collapse and both jumpers landed safely — including an apology and hugging it out.
The swooper from this video explained that he "hadn't been to this DZ in three years and didn't realize there was a separate high performance landing area." This is a huge oversight. Anyone doing high-performance turns needs to proactively check the dropzone's policies for turns bigger than 90-degrees, if a specific area is set aside for high-performance turns, and if they even allow it after a jumper has gone to full altitude. Simply put, if you think you're experienced enough to be even attempting to swoop, you should be experienced enough to check the policies. For more on this issue, check the "Additional Notes" section below.
The jumper who was hit mentioned that he had target fixation on the ground as he was coming in on his final approach and didn't notice the other canopy until it was too late.
The swooper said that he hadn't been to that dropzone in in three years. We don't know if he failed to get a ground briefing or if he didn't pay attention to a ground briefing. Either way, had he known the expectations and the rules of the dropzone, this incident could have been prevented because he wouldn't have been doing a 180-degree turn and colliding with an unsuspecting jumper who was following a predictable left-hand pattern landing.
Let's start by saying that it certainly didn't help that the other canopy was mostly black and sort-of blended into the trees.
However, if you're going to be doing a big turn, it's your responsibility to know where everyone around you in the sky is located. This swooper was flying straight at the other canopy for a full five seconds during which he could have easily aborted had he seen them. His failure to see the other jumper was probably at least somewhat due to the fact that he was focused on looking up, grabbing the front risers, and setting up for the turn.
We think it's worth nothing that the USPA Group Member pledge includes a stipulation requiring that dropzones "Establish landing procedures that will include separation of high-speed and normal landings. These landing procedures must be prominently displayed and communicated to all jumpers at the drop zone." I happen to know the dropzone in question and I'm pretty sure that the last time I jumped there they told me that anyone doing a high-performance turn should request a low-altitude pass.
We've discussed this issue before in previous posts, but we'll rehash it. Generally speaking, most professional canopy coaches don't like 180-degree turns and tend to skip them in turn progression. The reason is that turning 180-degrees doesn't allow a jumper to have a sight picture of the landing area. Effectively, they're turning blind and have no idea what they may be looking at when they suddenly turn around.
This skydive student's 4th static line jump escalated quickly with a premature reserve parachute opening that ripped him off the plane step! While climbing out of the small aircraft, the reserve flap came undone and exposed the reserve pin. He unknowingly dragged the top of the container across the plane's door handle above him, resulting in the reserve pin getting dislodged which caused the premature opening. The student was ripped off the plane step by the reserve, barely missed the tail of the aircraft, and — of course — his static line also deployed his main canopy, resulting in a two-out. He cutaway the main and landed safely on his reserve.
The jumper appears to have been sitting up against the instrument panel, may have rubbed up against the pilot's seat while getting up, and certainly rubbed up against the door and the door handle as he got out onto the step. Any one of these moments could have resulted in a premature deployment. It's actually fortunate that it wasn't until he was outside the aircraft that this jumper finally snagged something so roughly that his reserve deployed. Had that happened while he was still in the plane, it could have resulted in him getting yanked out, and possibly sustaining a fatal impact on the inside of the doorway as he got pulled out.
If you watch closely, as soon as the student begins exiting the plane, the flap protecting his reserve pin just blows away, leaving the pin unprotected. This should not be feasible with properly maintained gear. The possibility exists that the student rubbed the flap and displaced it while getting up, but the video suggests that this may have been older gear that needed some love from a rigger.
It's important for skydivers to know how to exit any given aircraft and to know about potential snag points that could catch your equipment. You'll often see experienced jumpers reaching back to check their main flap and their pilot chute anytime they move around the plane and then again one last time right before the door is opened. What they're actually doing is checking to make sure that they didn't inadvertently catch their container on something that could result in an unsafe situation. Further, once you're aware of those snag points, it's important to remember not to rub up against them!
The flaps protecting your reserve pin and main pin start to wear out over time and they lose the stiffness required to remain firmly seated. They need to be kept in good repair and, if they're so weak that nothing more than the wind can uncover your pins, it's definitely time to have those flaps replaced.
To celebrate his 400th jump, this skydiver decided to do a bigway freefly tube jump, which was a bit sketchy and turned into a zoo — bodies everywhere with a lot of vertical and horizontal separation. Once he deployed his main canopy, he discovered it wasn't flyable due to a packing error. However, rather than letting go of the freefly tube to follow standard emergency procedures (EP's) for a clean cutaway, he held on to the tube and attempted a one-handed cutaway and reserve deployment. Fortunately he finally let go of the tube just as the reserve was deploying and he landed safely.
The video is scary because there's a tube involved, but if you watch closely, the tube isn't really involved in the malfunction! This was a straight up packing error! If our translation from French to English was correct (ahem, thanks Google Translate), it sounds like the jumper was anxious about jumping with a tube for the first time and wasn't paying attention while they were packing because they were having conversations about the upcoming tube jump.
It sounds like this jumper was nervous about the tube jump and, because they were so worried about what was going to be happening in the air, they made a serious mistake on the ground while packing. It's okay to think about your jump and visualize what you're going to be doing, but you shouldn't be worrying about the jump when there are other critical steps that require your complete attention. When you're packing or when you're doing gear checks? Those are times when your focus needs to totally be on what you're doing in that moment.
So, this jump probably shouldn't have happened in the first place. Some folks may call us boring or risk-averse, but 400 jumps probably isn't enough for a skydiver to be holding onto a tube. Additionally, almost nothing about this jump suggests that there were enough safety-conscious/experienced jumpers involved. There were two tubes, at least ten or eleven jumpers, half of them were at different levels, and a few were halfway across the sky. This was sketchy and someone like an organizer, S&TA, or DZM should have stepped in and made sure this could be attempted safely.
When getting briefed on the ground, the jumper was told by multiple individuals that, above all else, that they should NOT let go of the tube. Well, that's all well and good when everything is going according to plan, but once things started going awry and they cutaway, they should have let go! There is no reason to keep holding on to a 20-foot piece of fabric that is going to threaten to prevent your reserve canopy from deploying as cleanly as possible. Thankfully, this jumper realized that half a second before they pulled their reserve.
Wow, it doesn't get much closer than this! This skydiver was training with a coach on his 55th jump. They broke off and deployed as planned, only to suddenly see another jumper come rocketing past them with their canopy still deploying — literally missing by inches (as seen by the shadow of the leg on the canopy)! Luckily they didn't impact, which could have been fatal at that speed.
The jumper who nearly hit this person noted that he didn't think he waited the full ten seconds that he should have, based on the ground speed for jump run.
It's not atypical for newer jumpers to rush the exit count. The excitement of being in the door and getting ready to exit tends to lead people to count "ONETWOTHREEFOUR..." instead of "One... Two... Three... Four..." This can lead to situations like this where the next jumper or group gets out almost immediately on top of the preceding group of jumpers.
One of the issues with exit counts is that most people just count in their head. The lack of external stimuli makes it difficult to ensure that they're taking their time and not rushing. One classic — and simple — way to avoid rushing is to count out loud and use the "one-thousand" method. That process involves a jumper saying "One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand... etc." By forcing your lips to physically form the individual syllables of each word, you prevent your mind from rushing the count.
You can also add to the "count out loud" method by adding a physical component. Simply put, regress to being a five year old, and count on your fingers! By putting up a finger for each second, you add another action which will make it harder for you to accidentally rush the count in your head. Keeping those fingers in front of your face will also allow you to review your count on video and will give you the ability to confirm that you weren't rushing.
A basic belly jump with inexperienced skydivers just wouldn't be complete without catching a few burbles... or a human meat missile nearly hitting you head-on. As the group hit break-off altitude, two of the jumpers waved off and turned to track away, but the jumper who was furthest away decides to start tracking... right at the cameraman! He turned into a meat missile with very little control, closed the distance, and came very close to hitting not one, but two jumpers. Fortunately, he didn't actually make contact, but our cameraman had a one-finger salute for the unnecessary close call.
We don't know much about the jumpers in this video. However, based on the inability of the jumper who turned into a meat missile to stay close to the other jumpers, this is probably an inexperienced group. Belly jumps like this are pretty basic and not being able to get into the group is a sign that he probably had pretty low jump numbers. Further, the two who did get together didn't seem to really pay attention to where everyone else was and didn't appear to make any efforts at moving towards the rest of the group — another sign that these were probably newer jumpers.
It's really exciting to get your license, and the second you can start jumping with your friends you obviously want to start getting into the air with everyone! Bad idea! When you're a newer jumper, you're typically going to be a bit of a liability to everyone around you. That danger can be mitigated by keeping beginner groups small. By only having one or two inexperienced jumpers on any given jump, everyone in the air will be able to stay aware of everyone else and will be able to move the group towards one another.
We really don't know what that meat missile was thinking, but we're guessing that his audible went off and he just wanted to start tracking like crazy. Yes, at break off altitude, the idea is to get away from everyone else and ensure that you have room to safely deploy your canopy. However, before you start tracking you should check to see where everyone is and turn away from them first!
A premature reserve opening definitely puts the "X" in XRW. These guys were in the middle of a sick XRW jump where everything was going according to plan (we’re going to skip over the part when they busted through the clouds, haha!). As the canopy pilot's feet pulled up on the wingsuiter's chest strap, it popped the reserve pin and the reserve pilot chute deployed! Fortunately, even without electronic communication equipment, the other wingsuiters in the flock were able to shout loud enough to convey that there was a problem. The wingsuiter with the premie managed to roll over before his reserve opened — he didn’t even have any line twists! Overall, this situation was handled very well and ended well.
These guys were incredibly forthcoming about what they believe happened here. In the details they provided, they explained that wingsuiter was flying a borrowed rig and it turned out that the reserve cable was about one inch too short. When the canopy pilot hooked his feet into the wingsuiter’s chest strap, it began to apply tension to that cable. When they started hitting a bit of turbulence the additional tension was enough to pop the reserve pin and fire the reserve pilot chute. No bueno.
The extra tension that is going to be applied to a rig is a foreseeable and obvious aspect of an XRW jump where a canopy pilot is hooking their feet into a chest strap. Knowing that, checking to make sure that the reserve cables are long enough to deal with that extra tension is a relatively easy additional gear check that can happen on the ground. This is actually something which jumpers who do a lot of hybrids check for because the tension seen in this video is effectively the same as what occurs on a hybrid when a jumper who goes into a stand and is holding onto the chest straps of jumpers who are on their bellies.
After an uneventful two-way jump with a friend, this skydiver deployed his canopy and spent approximately 25 seconds messing around with his slider. Once he finally collapsed the slider and grabbed his toggles, he looked ahead and saw a canopy heading STRAIGHT towards him! Somehow, the jumpers (bodies) didn’t collide — but their canopies sure did. They were very lucky because that type of head-on collision could have resulted in serious injury or death.
The jumper explained that the group behind him was jumping from full altitude for the first time, were supposed to give a ten second delay, and were supposed to pull 100 meters (approx. 300 ft) higher than his group. If that second group didn’t give enough delay and didn’t pull at the right altitude, that could have been the issue.
It’s possible that this jumper and his friend were drifting up jump run. Based on canopy size, and their difficulties staying together after letting go of each other in freefall, they were likely newer jumpers and it’s possible they drifted towards the group that got out after them. The opposite is also possible; the second group could have flown down jump run towards these two.
This jumper noted that this was his first time jumping this canopy (beer!) and he wasn’t familiar with how to collapse the slider. He was the first to admit that he became preoccupied with the slider, and it resulted in him not paying attention to his surroundings.
Exit delay is something that even more experienced jumpers mess up because, especially in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to get excited and rush the count. Instead of going “One… two… three… four…” some folks go “ONE!TWO!THREE!FOUR!” and jump. One way to prevent that is by counting on your fingers. The manual act of holding up your hand in front of your face and seeing the fingers coming up can prevent you from rushing out of the plane.
When you’re a newer jumper, It’s easy to get confused about what direction the plane is flying and what direction you should be flying to avoid going up or down jump run. One of the most surefire ways to make sure you’re aware of it is by reviewing an overhead map on the ground before you even get into the plane. Many, if not most, dropzones mark the direction of jump run. And, if they don’t, just ask!
Taking 25-ish seconds to collapse a slider and unstow his toggles could have gotten this jumper killed because he was too busy messing around with his gear to remain aware of what was happening around him. He could have avoided this by asking his rigger to explain what was different with his new canopy compared to his old one, and by having them demonstrate how to stow his slider quickly and efficiently.
While doing a 2-way jump with a friend, this skydiver's chest strap came undone in freefall at 5,500 feet! With only a few seconds before they had to deploy, they realized they probably didn't have enough time to re-route the chest strap, so they just held onto it while they deployed.
We don't have video from prior to the jump, so we don't know what happened in the plane or on the ground. On top of that, the description that came with the video didn't really elaborate on what might have caused this.
Consequently, all we can do is make logical assumptions about what happened. Our particularly sensitive senses of deductive reasoning leave us thinking that this jumper's chest strap was never routed properly to begin with and it slowly came undone in freefall.
If this chest strap was misrouted, then it should have been noticed by either the jumper or their friends! There's no reason that a jumper should ever get onto a plane without having realized that this scenario is about to occur. They should have noticed during their gear checks. Their buddies should have noticed during buddy checks. Their fellow jumpers should have noticed because we should ALL be looking at one another's chest straps and handles in the plane... to make sure this EXACT scenario doesn't happen.
While doing a hop 'n pop from 3,500 feet out of what looks like a REALLY cool helicopter, this jumper – for some reason – decided to deploy while on his back. Whoops. The deployment resulted in a mess with his leg going through his lines. After fighting this for a very long time, he finally realized it wasn’t salvageable and cut away – albeit with out-of-sequence emergency procedures, but fortunately the reserve didn't get entangled with the main canopy.
In this jumper’s own words, he “had 8 jumps in two days with no sleep, (then) traveled to another dropzone to jump the 9th and… was so sleepy and tired (that he) even had a nap (on the way to altitude.)”
This jumper flipped from his belly to his back before deploying, sending the pilot chute into the space between his legs, and ultimately creating a mess of a malfunction that required him to chop.
To us, it kind of appears that this jumper really wanted to get a shot of the – admittedly super cool – helicopter he was jumping from and so he went to his back while pitching. He knew that he was jumping from a low altitude (3,500 feet) and needed to deploy rather quickly, but we think he also really wanted to take a look at the aircraft. We totally get it. However, on every jump the number one priority needs to be deploying your parachute at a safe altitude in the most stable way possible.
This jumper was the first to admit that he probably didn’t have enough rest to be jumping safely. Every jumper who has ever been to a boogie is probably guilty of doing the same. However, it’s still an unsafe practice that can result in very dangerous consequences. This skydiver is very lucky that his decision to jump while super tired didn’t result in anything worse than a cutaway.
When watching this video, most experienced jumpers will notice that this jumper pulled his reserve before cutting away. He’s very fortunate that his out-of-sequence emergency procedures didn’t result in a nasty mess where his reserve entangled with his main. However, the jumper addressed that factor in his description of the video. He said, that he tried to chop but that the “cutaway handle (was) stuck because the riser was under my container pressure.” That said, again, the issue wouldn't have arisen had he not deployed on his back in the first place.
