Skydiving disaster.......what'd this guy do wrong?
 

Poor pack job or not-maintaned rig. This does happen from time to time. The loop and pin that hold the container closed came out and his main deployed prematurely. It can happen under various circumstances. For example, a rig may not be freefly friendly. While falling in other than a belly-down position, the main can deploy. No fun!

I can't view the video, but my first gues would be he jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

Kinda my take on that sport...

No such thing.

Sure there is, the one that takes me to the landing :)

for sure the chute deployed prematurely. who can say whether it was an equipment malfunction or the diver pulled early by accident..
ryan

I had almost the same thing happen years ago. Doing a demo jump in Poland in 1988 we were jumping out of a helo at 16,000 feet.

I was going to hang onto another diver and we were doing to do a "spinning wheel" out where we formed a circle and spun down to 4000 feet then pulled.

We got in the door and formed up and then she got buffeted by the rotor and we both hit the front door frame. She when went out and when she did my main ripcord was pulled out by a rib on the door.

My main opened at 16,000 feet and I had a 30 minute ride down. Pulled and slipped the chute but it did not make much difference in the time it took to get to earth and I sure was not going to cut away to my emergency chute and save the time. I had a good chute over me and you never know about the other chute.

This can also happen when a drogue comes out inside the bird and pulls the diver out. Have seen it down a plane in the process. Sport is a lot of fun but you need to be careful.

JoeA

lol. that was my first reaction too, but then again I've been guilty of doing the same, so I can't really talk too much

that's some facking scary shyte right there. my jump master told us that if we neglected to guard our reserves when the door opens, he would unceremoniously send us out of the plane after it, lest it decide to pop out the door and rip the fuselage taking the plane and the rest of the crew with it. made for one horrific mental image. needless to say, we never had a problem with that

Good airplane = one that the engine is still running and isn't on fire.

As a glider pilot, I take exception to that remark. ;)

it's just another reason why Skyvan's rule !

http://www.jumpwithus.co.uk/images/skyvan.jpg

I've jumped out of that very plane many times! Gotta love the skyvans. Love doing a handstand at the ledge looking down into the abyss :)

well, must admit , have some jumps, but never got my licence, to tedious and expensive in belgium ... never any jumpmasters around, so it's a constant wait...
and although i find it great fun , it's way to expensive to fully commit to it as a hobby...

first jump was fun though , duo , to get a feel for it

as i sit in teh skyvan, and strap myself to the dude with the chute... he goes, harder, i oblige , the bloody harnass broke...
bunch of frenchies going , nah can't jump, busted, i'm like "wtf !??"

went down with the plane, back up half an hour later


week after that , signed up for the solo thing
got the drill in the morning, bad weather in the afternoon , couldn't jump
weather stayed bad... first sunday with decent weather, was a full 14 days... dude goes, you remember the drill, i'm like yeah yeah , pull the cord, if nothing happens , yank the two handles, right?


in the sky van , jumpmaster hanging out ... i'm on the edge, jumpmaster on the left... out ... in ... out. ... weeeeeee


forgot one detail ... got to swing legs backwards and arch

i went head first full kamikaze... the jumpmasters had their work cut out pulling me straight....

some exercizes... dude does the sign , i pull the cord

301
302
303
parachute?
nottn'

mind races, going back 2 weeks...
- at 3500 feet, nothing , high speed = 8 secs thil "thud"
- obvious failure #1 , sticking pilote chute

hmm, remedy , change attitude, i curl a bit, whack , chute opens...


next obstacle... tripple twist...

nother flashback to the drill , decision time , fixable? workable? or cutaway and pull reserve?

got it untwisted... gliding down

dude in the earpiece starts yapping to talk me down

left.... more left...hold it .. 400 feet ,300 feet, right 200 feet..

crackling... radio noise... nothing more 150 feet, i see barbed wire... 50 feet, got past the wire...

the flare thing is impossible to judge on the first landing...
and that geek in the radio is nowhere

i pull the thing way to soon , and find myself hanging a good 3 meters to high for a gentle touchdown .... smack... nothing broken , did loose my ripcord... means buying beer to the JM's...

i think i'm going to look for a DZ in R'dam area... it's been to long ago...

He definitely did not pull early. If you watch closely, the deployment bag just fell out of the container, caught air, and dragged the pilot chute right out of it's pouch.
It was either a very poor pack job (closing pin not seated properly), or the closing pin loop itself broke. That is why you inspect those parts every time you pack, and preferably get a buddy to give you a "pin check" at altitude. The closing pin loop is about a $1 part, and takes about 5 minutes to replace.

Also, some skydivers have been known to downsize to a smaller, higher-performance canopy while still using the same container/harness. This creates a situation where there is not enough tension on the closing flaps, and the pin can more easily wiggle out. Not good.

What I want to know is how do you get the guy off the tail?

as a pilot you hope he isn't whacking around so fast that he's unable to cutaway...


if he ain't moving... on his own , you can probably shake him off, and then it's a question of wether he's still awake or ko form the wind and flapping around...reserve chutes don't have an automatic opener like the main chute has...


the pilot probably can land without to much hastle in this configuration ...but it would leave a nasty skidmark on the run way if it's concrete... on grass it would still be bumpy ...

Nothing that coudn't be hosed off later...