Participants and organizers at the Arizona Challenge, an annual invitational event at Eloy, were shocked and saddened when tragedy struck an experienced member of the group. A well-known figure on the big-way and competition skydiving scene was observed to free fall all the way to impact without deploying either main or reserve parachute.
He was on his seventh jump of the day, a 16-way that proceeded normally until break-off, he was doing his job in the skydive with no apparent problems. Tracking off began as usual at 4,500 feet. Eye witness accounts from people on the jump said that the skydiver tracked, flared out, and appeared to be about to pull. But he did not deploy his main pilot chute, nor his reserve. His horrified friends watched helplessly as nothing happened; he stayed stable, in a neutral body position all the way to the ground.
The skydiver was a current, very experienced, competent skydiver with 4,000 jumps, 150 of these in last 6 months. He did not have an AAD installed. A functioning AAD would probably have prevented this tragedy.
When DZ staff arrived at the scene they found the main closing loop had broken, probably from impact (this is not uncommon) and the bag and pilot chute were out of the container. He had pulled the cutaway handle, as it was found 150 feet from the rig, on a nil wind day.
We will probably never know exactly what happened. Logical conclusions from the facts are that the jumper either could not locate his main handle or had a hard pull, then took too long trying to deploy his main, leaving insufficient time to locate and pull his reserve handle. It’s likely that when he began emergency procedures he went into ‘autopilot’ and pulled the cutaway pad first, then ran out of altitude to pull the reserve handle.
Opinions differ on whether to have one single emergency drill (pull cutaway pad, then reserve handle) or whether to go straight for the reserve if you know the main container is closed. The latter option saves time so is probably a better choice in that situation.
#What lessons can we learn?
Downloading and perusing the list of Cypres saves, reading the list of extraordinary saves and/or examining the list of Vigil saves, some clear patterns emerge…
##Inability to find handles
About a third of the saves involve skydivers being unable to locate their handles (main pilot chute, cutaway, reserve handle). Generally when jumpers practice their emergency procedures they will be standing on the ground. The emergency handles are in different places when in freefall and under canopy. In freefall they will usually be further out to the sides than when on the ground. Under canopy they will be higher. It is worth building in some time on a few skydives to look and locate your emergency handles in freefall and under canopy.
##Lack of action
The second common factor, accounting for another third of the saves, is not taking action in an emergency. People can completely lose altitude awareness, or ‘forget’ to deploy their reserve, or freeze in terror, or know they should do something but do not know what. Remember, a skydiver experiencing a high speed malfunction (no canopy) at 2,000 feet only has about 8 seconds to rectify the situation.
The logical conclusion from this fascinating reading is that when very experienced, current and competent skydivers have failed to adopt basic life-saving procedures, it would be wise to assume this could happen to you. Preventive measures include buying and using an AAD, rehearsing imaginary scenarios, and making sure you are current with emergency procedures, preferably in a suspended harness with your own rig.
And the other third of the saves? Read the lists to find out…
