A jumper was sitting against the controls in a small aircraft and, as they got up to exit, their reserve pilot chute deployed in the plane! They didn't realize the situation, but another jumper grabbed the pilot chute and threw it out the door as the jumper got off the step. WOW.
This skydiver wasn’t paying attention to what he was resting his rig against and did not think to check whether something on the instrument panel (pretty much a million little snag hazards) could have hooked his equipment. Consequently, he failed to realize that his reserve pilot chute was out.
These jumpers were sitting in a plane approaching jump run and, at no point, did they do any sort of gear checks. They simply waited for the pilot to call “door” and started climbing out.
Anytime a jumper is leaning against something in an aircraft, their first instinct upon moving should be to check to ensure nothing was dislodged or snagged. Also, if you’re in a plane and sitting against the instrument panel, you might want to avoid rubbing against all the magic knobs and switches that keep a bunch of metal in the air 😉
A few thousand feet before exit altitude, everyone should be getting up, checking their gear, checking their buddy’s gear, etc. If the group ahead of you is planning on sitting there until the red light comes on, feel free to encourage them to get off their butts.
The second jumper noticed what had happened, grabbed the pilot chute and tossed it out with the jumper. Another jumper who watched this video believed the proper decision would have been to grab the jumper before they climbed out, closed the door, and flown the plane down (like this other incident). It’s hard to see if that was an option and the quick decision to make sure the pilot chute exited the aircraft cleanly was arguably a good call.
This jumper deployed his main canopy, but it inflated with some pretty messy twists that were, initially, far up the lines. They came down closer to the jumper and he attempted to clear them for approximately ten seconds but, as his canopy began diving rather aggressively, he decided to cut away his main. His reserve deployed but it also opened into some heavy line twists but, fortunately, he was able to get out of them and land his reserve canopy safely.
The 360-degree camera angle may be slightly misleading, but it appears that this jumper’s body position was slightly asymmetric. It’s particularly visible when he throws his pilot chute forward aggressively. This likely created those line twists. His risers consequently being asymmetric was likely also the cause of his canopy going into a diving spin.
During deployment, especially with smaller and more aggressive canopies, 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 jumper can drastically reduce the chance that their deployment will result in line twists.
When this jumper went to pull his cutaway handle, he initially reached way too far down his torso. He had to run his hands down from near his belly button all the way back up to where the handle was seated. This is an excellent example of why it’s important to do handle checks to create muscle memory regarding where you should reach. (Admittedly, during this type of spin the harness has likely shifted a bit away from where it is on the ground!) This is also a great explanation of why instructors often harp on looking down and seeing the handle as you’re reaching for it.
This is a very unique situation you don't see very often — or ever. The last skydiver out of the plane diving towards the group, who were attempting to build a BFR (Big F*$@ing Round), had a prosthetic leg. As air started to get under the prosthetic, it caused him to start spinning out of control and forced him to deploy his main parachute early. (We’re assuming he was concerned about the prosthetic coming off mid-air.) Very fortunately, there was no one directly above him to catch a premature opening in the face.
While still on the ground, the jumper reportedly stated that he had “never jumped without a jumpsuit” before. No one here at Teem has a prosthetic so we can’t personally attest to the potential for one to come off. However, the incident in this video combined with the jumper evidently being worried about the risk of jumping without a jumpsuit, suggests that he knew that there was risk involved in doing so.
Skydiving is all about the minimization of risk. This sport is inherently dangerous, so the only way to make it safer is to find potential hazards and try to eliminate or reduce them as much as possible. This jumper knew about a potential hazard to the point where he brought it up on the ground. Once he established that it was a possible issue, he should have had a moment of honest reflection about it and done what he could to prevent it from being a factor.
Some folks may watch this video and think it’s not serious enough to warrant being featured in our Friday Freakout series. We chose to use it because it’s a unique situation we’ve never seen before and part of the reason we created this series is to foster education and safety. Unique situations like this one may only happen once in a blue moon, but talking about it might make someone more aware of a rare but potentially serious risk in the future.
As this 6-way group started to break off, one of the skydivers fell onto another jumper below him as he flew into their burble. The lower jumper's foot caught their friend's reserve handle, which resulted in a premature reserve parachute opening. The camera flyer was directly above them, and – as can be seen very well in Camera 3’s slow motion shot – they came within feet of making contact. Fortunately, they managed to skim past, and no one was injured.
The space directly above a skydiver is referred to as their burble. It’s considered “dead air.” If you enter into that space, you’re going to lose your ability to fly your body and will come down onto the person below you. When this person flew into their friend’s burble, they also had the bad luck to fall in a way that ended up with their buddy displacing their reserve handle and deploying their reserve.
Simply put, the only likely way this could have been prevented was for the jumper to have maintained slightly better situational awareness and realized that his buddy was right below him. Had he avoided flying into his buddy’s burble, the incidental contact that displaced his reserve handle wouldn’t have occurred.
We’re not sure if this was the case, but the fact that the reserve handle came out from what looks like relatively minimal contact may suggest that the handle was already slightly loose or that the velcro -- which is supposed to keep it seated -- may have been old. If that was the case, it should have been noticed during gear checks and should have been replaced.
During the shot from Camera 2, there’s a white road leading to a red patch of land. Did anyone else, for a half second, think that it was a reserve handle and cable?!
This skydiver deployed into some line twists, which sent his canopy into a dive and had a very close call, nearly colliding with another canopy below him. He decided not to cutaway sooner due to concerns of flying through the lower jumper’s canopy. Once he finally cutaway, he had more line twists on his reserve but managed to kick it out and land safely.
The causes of line twists are always hard to determine, but in this case, it looks like the incident may have been the result of an unstable deployment. When the jumper goes to pitch, they appear to start turning and – if this were combined with a minor packing error – it could have certainly resulted in line twists.
Only seconds after this jumper deployed, the red canopy can be seen almost directly below him (0:20). This suggests that, despite deploying at very different altitudes – 5,000 ft and 4,000 ft, respectively – the lower jumper was nearly above the higher jumper. This could have been the result of either one, or both, jumpers tracking improperly.
Both possible factors in these line twists are basic skydiving concepts which are easy to get complacent about. On every pack job, jumpers need to ensure they don’t rush and don’t get distracted. And on every jump, they need to make sure that they don’t take pitching for granted and consciously ensure to have a good, stable, deployment.
The near collision could have been due to the lower jumper not tracking well enough and deploying under his buddy or due to the higher jumper tracking in the same direction and not realizing he was above someone else. Either way, proper tracking technique – both in terms of making sure to not track in the same direction and making sure to create enough separation – could have prevented this near-collision.
This jumper notes that he saw the red canopy under him and that was why he decided not to cut away earlier. However, at no point did he decide to attempt to communicate his position overhead to the jumper below who, because of the canopy over his head, would have a difficult time seeing him. Because we cannot communicate verbally in freefall, some jumpers forget that we can hear one another under canopy. It’s something typically discussed during night jumps but it’s also an option on any other skydive as well.
Wait for it... waaaaiiiit for iiiittttt! BAM! That came out of nowhere. After leaving very little separation between exits, this second jumper had an uneventful jump, but as he deployed his main canopy, he went screaming through the first jumper’s already-inflated canopy -- and he lost a shoe in the process.
The second jumper pretty much chased the first one out the door, giving less than three seconds of separation. As a result, they were flying right above the first jumper throughout the whole skydive.
As noted, this video didn’t come with any comments from the submitter. However, this type of incident is often caused by a jumper feeling rushed to get out the door or flying up/down jump run.
Maybe the groups in front of them took forever in the door, and they were worried about landing off. Perhaps they were a new jumper, got over excited, and counted too fast. There’s a dozen reasons why they may have rushed to get out. None are a good excuse for this mistake.
If the plane is flying fast enough to justify a 3 second separation between groups (as was the case in this video), that might be a red flag to not be jumping out of it in the first place! Even in a plane traveling at 100 knots ground speed, you should be giving someone around 6 seconds before you exit.
We like dropzones that post an exit separation chart in the plane both in the front and in the back. We love pilots who get on an intercom at the green light and note the ground speed and the separation for everyone on the plane.
Here's a helpful exit separation chart from Skydive Chicago (SDC):
Everyone tends to count too fast. 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.
Mr. Bill exits can get a little spicy, and this one was no exception. On this Mr. Bill attempt, the pilot chute and bridle got caught under the other jumper’s leg and then wrapped around his foot. Fortunately, they were able to unwrap it and both jumpers landed safely.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a “Mr. Bill” is a skydive where one jumper holds onto another as the second person deploys their parachute. If the skydiver manages to hold on during the deployment process, they then hang around with their friend for a bit, then let go into freefall before opening their own parachute.
Mr. Bill exits are particularly tricky (read: potentially dangerous) and have a high chance of going awry. Some dropzones very specifically prohibit them from even being attempted because the reality is that many things can go wrong. This video demonstrates just one of them. Realistically, this jumper did a good job deploying their pilot chute quickly upon leaving the plane (a necessary action for a successful Mr. Bill) and the fact that it wrapped around the other jumper was probably just bad luck.
The number one thing that jumpers attempting a Mr. Bill should do as part of their preparation for the jump is to find more experienced jumpers who have done them before — successfully. Not only can this better prepare jumpers for a potentially sketchy skydive, it can give experienced folks at the dropzone a chance to intervene if the jumpers making the attempt are not ready for something like this.
We have no idea regarding the level of experience these jumpers had, but the individual who deployed their pilot chute did a beautiful job keeping calm and unwrapping the bridle from their buddy’s leg. They not only unwrapped it, but they had the sense to hold onto it to prevent it from deploying the main and potentially causing a “de-gloving” injury to their friend.
This newer jumper, with only 50-ish jumps at the time, tried exiting the plane without unfastening his seat belt. Uhhh... yeah... what else is there to say? No bueno.
This may sound weird to people from the US but there are places around the world that don’t require — or at least don’t enforce — the requirement that seat belts be worn during take-off. This jumper noted that the video is from 2015 and that his dropzone had just started requiring seat belts, so this was a new procedure for him at the time.
Had this jumper sat up to check his gear before the jump, he would likely have noticed that he still had his seat belt on.
This type of incident is a perfect example of why more experienced jumpers get annoyed when the back of the plane doesn’t get up until the red light comes on. Prior to the door being opened, it’s important to get up and ensure your pilot chute didn’t sneak out, your pin didn’t become dislodged, etc. It’s not certain that a gear check would have caught this issue — some longer seat belts still have enough slack for a person to get up — but that’s the type of thing that should become obvious pretty quickly during a gear check.
We’ve seen a new jumper intentionally make sure that their seat belt was still on before opening the door at 2,000 feet. When (calmly and politely) asked “What were you thinking?!?” the jumper didn’t understand what had happened; it turns out it was their first time opening the door and they were scared of falling out below hop and pop altitude. It seems like common sense, but it’s not really discussed in AFF and new jumpers may not understand how catastrophic it would be for a plane to have a parachute deploy while the jumper is still attached to their seat belt.
This was an AFF-IE (AFF Instructor Examiner) jump where, from what we can tell, the simulated AFF student was making the student instructor work pretty darn hard! We’re not getting into that aspect of the jump – or about the untied shoelace – but the scary aspect of this jump was when the “student” deployed his main and his helmet/camera got stuck on the RDS slider. Fortunately he had a proper cutaway system on the helmet, so he cutaway the helmet before chopping the main canopy and landed safely. The helmet and canopy separated from the jumper, which provided a very interested POV as the camera helmet made its way down to the ground.
It's quite rare for a cut away helmet and camera to remain so stable – and pointed directly down at the ground– for the entire freefall to the ground. This is NOT a video of a jumper slamming into the ground without a parachute! The last moments of the video are from the view of a camera which was mounted to a helmet that the jumper cutaway from his body. The jumper landed safely and no one was hurt on this jump.
This jumper looked stable when he deployed the main canopy, even though he had been simulating a hot mess of an AFF student throughout most of the jump. The fact that the RDS got caught on the camera mount was arguably just bad luck.
The most obvious way to prevent a snag like this is to minimize the stuff on top of your helmet or by making sure it’s optimized for avoiding snags. Many jumpers don’t realize how easily a standard GoPro mount can catch a few lines and how huge a difference a roller mount or a low-profile mount can make. The less gear you have on your head, the better. And if you’re going to have gear on your head, make sure it’s set up to avoid snags.
Jumpers need to realize that ANYTHING they mount on their helmet can pose a hazard and that they need to be ready and willing to lose their helmets in order to save their own lives. More importantly, they need to be ready and willing to make that decision quickly. Many jumpers think about the fact that their helmet holds upwards of a thousand dollars of equipment, and they may not want to cut it away as a result. At the end of the day, losing a helmet full of gear is totally worth it if that’s the cost to walk away from an otherwise potentially fatal malfunction.
