Basejumper.com - archive

Any bother to copy paste into here,i dont have a login to dz.com

http://news.cincinnati.com/...822/NEWS01/308220083


Chute fails, skydiver hurt

UNION TWP. – A skydiver who jumped from a helicopter is in unknown condition after the parachute failed to open Friday evening.

Union Township police in Clermont County received multiple calls just after 7:30 p.m. to the 4800 block of Pathfinder Way.

The person, whose identity wasn’t yet known, jumped from the helicopter and during the fall, the parachute didn’t open, police said.

The diver was taken to Anderson Mercy Hospital.

Union Township police did not release any further information.

Edited to add: I don't feel entirely comfortable with the editing here. When I posted, I thought it was a skydive and and an injury, not a practice jump for BASE and a fatality. The original thread title was only about the media report I found online this morning, because it was the weirdest I've ever seen. The article below was not posted by me.

Additional news story:
http://www.wcpo.com/...4c2a23fd&rss=703
Man Killed In Skydiving Accident In Union Twp.

Last Update: 1:18 am

Web produced by: Neil Relyea


A skydiving accident claimed the life of a man in Union Township in Clermont County Friday night.

Police say the man was one of two who jumped from a helicopter that took off from the 4800 block of Pathfinder Road.

Police say his chute did not open.

Police are trying to notify his family before releasing his name.

This fatality is hard discuss when we blur the lines between sports. Spence will say there is something to learn and it's don't pull low (and maybe wear two parachutes) and from a skydiving perspective he's absolutely correct.

B.A.S.E. jumpers will look at it this fatality another way. We all know we've had some problems over the last few years with deployments and wingsuits on B.A.S.E. jumps. And that's what B.A.S.E. jumpers will take away from this incident. So let's overlook the legalities for a moment and look at things another way . . .

Historically B.A.S.E. jumpers never really had a problem with hitting the ground like skydivers initially did before AADs became the norm. Our problem was hitting the object we just jumped from, either in freefall, or more often, under canopy after a non-on-heading opening. And that's what killed the majority of B.A.S.E. jumpers until we designed B.A.S.E. specific rigs and canopies and developed new techniques that were B.A.S.E. specific. Things were good for awhile and the fatalities that did occur were usually chock full of lessons about things and situations, usually in different combinations, that could and should be avoided.

Then wingsuits came along. And soon too glorious wingsuit flights. With wingsuits we'd inadvertently come up with something that had mass appeal. Now folks were gravitating to B.A.S.E. because they saw videos of B.A.S.E. wingsuit flights. Even non-jumpers were going gaga over it. But like everything new in any aviation endeavor there was a learning curve that wasn't all that obvious at first.

Some of the first modern B.A.S.E. wingsuit fatalities were very perplexing until we figured it out. Wingsuiters were simply over-delaying themselves right into the ground. But how the hell could that be? B.A.S.E. jumpers without wingsuits weren't doing it. But as people lived through close calls and had the opportunity to consider what happened it became apparent the slow speed of wingsuits at ultra low altitudes was fooling their sense of timing. And now that lesson is passed on to every B.A.S.E. jumper when they first strap on wings. And once the groove was found low B.A.S.E. openings with wingsuits became as normal as low B.A.S.E. openings without wingsuits. Then, a new problem cropped up. We started to occasionally have deployment problems related to the gear itself.

So the location of the pilot chute pouches began migrating around as we tried to figure out the best place for them. And so far, even though some swear by one place or another, every place seems to have the potential for issues. We'll figure it out eventually but what you're witnessing is just another evolution in B.A.S.E. like a hundred that came before it.

The legal aspects of this particular fatality didn't matter much to TJ. His jump could have started from a cliff or an aircraft and it wouldn't have changed what happened in the last hundred feet. So it's moot from a B.A.S.E. jumper's perspective. But I'm a skydiver too so I understand why we focus on the legal side of things. In the early days of B.A.S.E. I came up with a saying you still hear from time to time, "Don’t B.A.S.E. jump at the drop zone." And what that meant in the 1980s wasn't what you'd think. It meant you didn’t wear you B.A.S.E. T-shirt at the DZ, didn’t talk about B.A.S.E. at the DZ, didn't pack you B.A.S.E. rig after the sunset load for some building jump later that night at the DZ. The flip side of the saying was you don't skydive off fixed objects.

Learning that B.A..S.E. and skydiving were two completely different sports, each having their own rules and techniques for staying alive, was another one of those hundred points of evolution we had to learn. Can you bend those rules? Sure, and if you want to be purely technical about it, it's a lot safer to use your B.A.S.E. rig out of an aircraft than it is to use your skydiving rig down at the Flatiron Building. But sadly, I still hear people at the DZ say, "I'd go jump something like El Capitan with my Mirage, because that's so high it's just like a skydive!"

So an experienced B.A.S.E. jumper reading this thread will understand in general terms what happened to TJ. But when I put my skydiving hat on I can see the grey area is the legal area. As skydivers we can't even get passed the one canopy concept never mind pulling so low intentionally. But in B.A.S.E. people are doing it everyday all over the world. But like oil and water there's always going be some incompatibility between BASE and skydiving. I guess what I wanted to get across is TJ isn't gone because he jumped from an aircraft with B.A.S.E. rig on, he's gone because he had deployment problem . . .

Now if you want to come at me from the standpoint that this incident makes skydivers look bad (okay I'll throw in the now infamous "Black Eye" theorem) well, I've been involved in both skydiving and B.A.S.E. long enough to know both the Feds and the public think all parachute jumpers are nuts and that is never going to change. And we'll make more of big deal out this then they will. As for the pilot, if this goes down like most past instances of this type, he'll never surface or get given up. And if he does, he'll just plead ignorance. "What do I know; it looked like every other parachute I've ever seen."

Laws and rules are okay to a point. But if someone hadn't broken the rules back in the 1960s there would never have been RW in skydiving. If some skydivers hadn't broken the law in the 1970s B.A.S.E. jumping would have never gotten off the ground. The only thing we parachutists have to absolutely always be mindful of is the law of gravity. Anything else we can hash out in court . . .

NickD

I think the split is a good thing; in fact it would have been better if this incident had simply been posted here instead of on dz.com, as the discussion would have likely been much more intelligent rather than the pissing contest it has become about the legalities of the incident.

"Lets figure this out and make it better". That would be TJ.
Learn from others and make it better!

I think the split is a good thing; in fact it would have been better if this incident had simply been posted here instead of on dz.com, as the discussion would have likely been much more intelligent rather than the pissing contest it has become about the legalities of the incident.

in the 'BAD' pic the shrivel flap enter the LOC covering the bridal, and if grabbed accidentally it could negate the shrivel properties and greatly increase the pull force needed to extract the PC.

but aparently "something" did come out, i cant say if it was due to the PC or him grabbing bridle and pulling on it. It was enough to swing him onto his back