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.
WHOA! Don’t blink or you’ll miss this cringe-worthy close call. One of the skydivers on this angle jump got too far ahead of the group, and instead of adding brakes to slow down to close the distance gap, they ended up turning back towards the group in the opposite direction. This skydiver went full meat missile. Never go full meat missile. A collision at this speed could have been fatal, so luckily there was no impact with the group.
There were varying levels and distances from the base/leader on this jump. Based on how much the meat missile was moving laterally relative to the rest of the group, it’s questionable whether they were at the appropriate skill level to be on this jump. If a jumper cannot control their speed on a track, if they cannot speed up or slow down as needed, and they’re not proficient at breaking off and picking a heading; they need to work on that prior to getting into group movement jumps.
An 8-way movement group isn’t exactly small. In a group that size, everyone should be capable of staying together or getting back into their slot or quadrant safely. Intro angle and tracking jumps should be kept small; probably around 3-4 jumpers, one of whom (preferably the leader) should be experienced.
Make minor adjustments to increase or decrease speed as needed to maintain levels, but never turn 180 degrees towards a formation — especially on a movement jump (angles, flat tracking). “Level. Slot. Dock.” applies to every skydiving orientation and discipline.
When putting a jump together everyone needs to be upfront about their skill levels and what the minimum skill level should be for the jump. A big part of that process is honesty; people need to be truthful about where they’re at and organizers may need to be blunt and tell a person if they’re not qualified to be on a particular skydive.
These skydivers were having fun canopy flocking and the lead jumper got pretty close to the jumper below. Close enough that he tapped the center cell of the canopy below with his foot, which caused the trailing canopy to partially collapse! It appears that, as this jumper (maybe?) released his toggles to go for his cutaway handle, the canopy reinflated and he was able to recover control.
Initially, we thought that this was a turbulence issue. Anything traveling through the air creates a pocket of turbulence behind it. When we're jumping and falling straight down vertically, we call that the "burble." When a wing — be it a plane or a canopy — is traveling through the air horizontally, it does the same exact thing and the phenomenon is called "wake turbulence." That wake spreads out behind a wing and causes turbulence.
However, Richo Butts — an extremely experienced competitive canopy pilot and XRW organizer — reviewed the video and pointed out two things. First, he discounted our turbulence theory and said that he's happy flying his "entire center cell in the burble of a canopy pilot's body in front of (him.)" Second, he stated that at 0:31, it appears that the lead pilot's foot makes contact with the trail canopy's nose. Related to that point, he explained that the stability inherent in a skydiving canopy "is achieved by having the line attachment points farther in from the nose and that's no good when someone stands on it."
This incident could have been avoided had the lead canopy been a bit more careful in his approach. We don't know the experience level of these pilots but coming in like that and making contact is potentially dangerous. Fortunately, it didn't have any consequences more serious than maybe a soiled pair of underwear!
Notably, in this video it appears that the jumpers were (probably) still high enough where a full canopy collapse could have still been dealt with by cutting away. It's important that jumps where canopies are in close proximity are completed, and jumpers separate from one another, prior to descending to altitudes where cutting away would no longer be a safe or realistic option.
One skydiver was flying directly towards another jumper under canopy and neither did anything to avoid a collision. Consequently, a collision took place! Thankfully both jumpers were able to recover from the incident and landed safely.
This video submission didn’t include details, but it seems possible that the jumper whose perspective we are viewing took it for granted that the other person would turn to avoid collision. (Yes, we realize that we’re making assumptions ourselves, haha.)
Either, or both, of these jumpers may have been so focused on their landing patterns that they completely forgot to pay attention to what was going on around them.
We believe it was one of our favorite canopy coaches, Greg Windmiller*, who explained a few years ago at the Parachute Industry Association Symposium how he hates the phrase, “Keep your head on a swivel” because it causes jumpers to just whip their heads around without taking the time to process what they’re seeing. That may have been sort of what happened here. The jumper almost certainly saw the canopy coming at him, but didn’t actually recognize the danger.
*Greg: If we misquoted you, or if it wasn't actually you who said that at all, please let us know!
A lot of jumpers say that, while tracking away from a formation and while under canopy, they presume everyone in the sky is trying to kill them. It may sound like paranoia but it’s not the worst mentality to have. Never assume someone knows what they’re doing, never assume they are going to avoid you, and never assume that they see you… even if they’re staring straight at you.
This wingsuit pilot deployed into heavy line twists, which he tried fighting for a minute and a half before finally deciding to cutaway — losing quite a bit of altitude in the process. Unfortunately, at that point he was stuck over a populated urban area and his only safe landing option was a soccer field… with an active match! He put it down right near the center of the field, but he still got a yellow card for not standing up the landing.
While flying a wingsuit, body symmetry during deployment is even more important than during a regular skydive because the extra fabric and drag are going to react very quickly to asymmetric conditions. It looks like this jumper may have had an asymmetric body position and it may have resulted in these line twists.
Whether it was confidence that he could clear the line twists, a fear of embarrassment over cutting away, or any of a hundred other reasons; this jumper seemed to have really thought that he could clear these line twists. He kept fighting them but, as a result, he put himself in a spot where he had limited landing options.
During a wingsuit deployment, a small degree of body rotation can result in deployment issues. By taking just a half second and ensuring that their body remains in a neutral and symmetric position, a wingsuit pilot can drastically reduce the chance that their deployment will result in line twists.
This USPA slogan was intended to encourage folks with diving malfunctions to cutaway early but — arguably — it applies to this scenario as well. The jumper spent over a minute and a half thinking that — despite his upper body strength slowly getting drained through constant effort — he would be able to finally get out of these line twists. Had he chopped earlier he may have managed to make it to a non-emergency landing area.
Fortunately for this jumper, delaying his cutaway didn’t really result in any particularly devastating repercussions. He walked away embarrassed (and with a yellow card) but it should be reiterated that he was jumping over a highly populated urban area with very few outs. If he had a malfunction with his reserve, the lack of altitude resulting from his delayed cutaway could have been a recipe for disaster. Even some minor line twists with his reserve could have resulted in him landing in power lines or slamming into a building.
