Basejumper.com - archive

http://www.kmvt.com/...ident-221948621.html

just fwd'ing the news. no details, no name, but alive. be respectful.

;(

Hate to hear about this. I know someone there right now. I called to check if it was someone I know, thankfully it wasn't! He knows specific firsthand accounts though. Hopefully after things settle down and the time is right he can post specifics. Thoughts go out to him and his friends and family.

He was flown from Twin Falls to Boise,
his pulse is down, blood pressure stable,
internal bleeding has been stopped, and
thinks are started to look better for him.
Still needs surgery to repair the damage
to pelvis, ribs, back, etc. but good news.

Can you talk about what happened yet?

Has now been named

Now that details are coming out, rig failure? Misrigged? Low arials? Flat stable short delay total? Packing clamp left on the nose?

He deployed on his back after an unstable exit, possible riser or bridle entaglement...we're looking at video & stills to see what else. He was jumping a Velcro rig.

There was a chain of events... as is usually the case.

There is no rush in releasing details because
quite frankly nothing new happened. I got
notes from every eye witness and waiting
to get video/stills then I'll post a summary.

2-way from the Perrine Bridge

Friend: doing a regular Tard, no relevance

Injured Jumper: Tim, going stowed, side-floater
wearing a Vision velcro rig, Mojo 280 from 1998,
Gravity Sports PC with 4 load bearing tapes, a
black rubber band for primary stow, black band
on tailgate still intact/closed after recovering,
and a helmet mounted GoPro camera.

Reports indicate Tim exited head-high in a sit position,
removed the PC, held it for approximately one second,
and then released it.

Bridle Entangled with jumper's arm and/or camera.
The container opening occurred just below the steel.

Video from LZ shows the canopy came out but the
PC does not appear to be 9 feet away. PC is rotating.
Canopy got to line stretch at approximately 250 feet
but never inflated.

Jumper impacts the water maybe 10 feet from shore.
Boat was close by so help arrived within 90 seconds.
Camera was not on helmet at time of rescue and as
of now has not yet been recovered from the river.

Did the tail gate release ok upon inspection? Do you think the black band caused it not to release at line stretch? Since the canopy was at line stretch, wouldn't the PC's job be finished regardless of what was happening prior to line stretch?

GreenMachine, you mention that the canopy did achieve line stretch. However, in the pic you posted titled "streamer" it doesn't appear that canopy is far enough above the jumper to be at full line stretch, and he looks pretty low at this point. I'm wondering if he actually achieved full line stretch or not. Perhaps one or more lines, not just the bridal, became tangled to the jumper or his equipment preventing line stretch and/or proper loading to allow for inflation.

This incident reminds me of similar one I witnessed there some years back (Canadian jumper doing pca/roll-over 3way) where this was the case and the outcome was nearly identical - basically impact with canopy out but no inflation just off shore, jumper surviving with severe injuries. Just an observation, but I realize the pics are not very clear, and I was not there.

So far I only have one video, thanks Kyle!

I shared it with a few people all of whom
have more experience than me plus one
of them is friends with the injured jumper.

They are reviewing it now, one of them is
likely to have and share their thoughts...

Any news if the injured jumper will make a full recovery or is it still too early?

Thoughts go out to him and his family/friends.

how experienced/headsup is the said jumper ?

have we not discussed the black rubberbands issue in BASE a number of years ago ??? We've head multiple tailgate and multi hangups documented on video, and at least one manufacturer had issued a SB.

Good thing he didn't use (or at least did not leave) a rubberband (black or other) to pack his PC.

He was returning from a decade long period of inactivity. Much of his gear was cutting edge late 90's equipment. I talked with him about it earlier this summer (June, I think), when I ran into him out here.

Tim has about 575 jumps, this was his 2nd trip to TF this year. From the still pics I have, it shows him exiting head high side floater, pulls his pc and held on to it for a second. The bridle comes in front of his arm, when he let go of the pc he reached for his risers ( trapping the bridle), the pc inflates rolling him slightly on his side. It's unclear if there was an entanglement with his gopro, but his bridle was definitely under his arm

Possibly just highlighting the obvious, but pulling the PC out and holding it - even momentarily - has killed more than one jumper. There was a fatality on Yellow Ocean in Lauterbrunnen some time back when the lower-jumper did exactly this to signal to the higher jumper that it was time to pull. In this case, the bridle line escaped and, when the PC was finally released, it passed through a twisted loop created by the fluttering bridle line which tightened and choked off the PC. A similar result can be achieved with a lazy throw.

If you pull out the PC, you should be throwing it like your life depends on it (so a friend of mine once wrote). It's true!

Richard

Is that video camera also cutting edge in the 1990s?

I thought it was 1960s footage of the Loch Ness Monster.

Sounds like nothing to do with Gear or Rigging mechanics . 'The Human Factor' Just Pilot error as usual is the issue . ?
.

i think using black rubber bands may have contributed and held the tailgate and primary locking stow. strongly advise against using black rubber bands on your base gear

No-Slider jump & Pitch should have made the canopy go BANG instantly but sounds like the (container opening was in delay ) & Not the Canopy .
.
( I just armchair speculating ) but it was mentioned that it was debatable if he even achieved full line stretch even if the pilot chute finally cleared ( after rolling him on side ) during the delay . And you can throw out the bridal misrouting factor, as the container was Shrivel Flap .
Sometimes it takes a combination of small factors for going-in . but Pilot pitching the Pilot Chute. combined with body positioning on exit sounds like it was the main mistake .

Multi bridle?

Nope, regular single attachment point bridle.

Here's a possibility...

1-Jumper exits in sitting position.
2-Pulls PC out and holds it.
3-Loop of bridle goes under arm and the loop is now going from the back side of the jumper, under arm and up in front of jumper by his head.
4-He releases PC and bridle is now around the GoPro.
4.5-This could be the point where he was turned on his side...
5-As PC inflates it pulls GoPro off and shrivels the shrivel flap.
6-As speed increases, the relative wind peels the rest of the shrivel flap off. I can see this, being he is in an up right sitting position.
7-Canopy is pulled out of container but never reaches line stretch due to the camera and bridle tangled. Now that the PC is not 9ft away, it is now in the burble and is rendered in affective and the relative wind is what really pulls the canopy out. Maybe?!

If you look closesly to Greenmachines picture labeled "streamer", you can see the bridle is in a "Z" shape between the PC and canopy. That could be from the GoPro.

My thought on the incident:

Jumper exits and bridal goes under the arm. as the PC inflates the shrivel flap pulls off the container but gets caught in harness webbing or other part of the rig, not on the GoPro.
The canopy floats out of the pack tray and the relative wind pulls it out but upside down (Because the attachment point is held closer to the jumpers body by the hangup). Wind catches the lines and pulls them out of the tail pocket but doesn't release the tailgate. If you measure the distance from the PC to the canopy attachment point it will serve to confirm this.

The shrivel flap can't be seen on the pics so I assume that's what got hung up at some point.

Knowledge of which side the bridal was caught on and which side of his body was more severely injured could also indicate a hang up on a side rather than on the GoPro.

I don't think so because if you look at the pic "streamer" you can see the bridle is coming from the higher side of the canopy into a Z shape towards the PC. Just because you can't see the shrivel flap doesn't mean it isn't there. It could very well be that it is on the same plane as the angle of the camera. You could only really see it if it were on more of a perpendicular plane.

If you look at the pic "Open" you can see line dump. I think if the canopy was inverted and he had a line dump he would have some sort of line stretch and some inflation of the canopy should've occurred.