Friday Freakout: Skydive Student Ripped From Plane By Premature Reserve Parachute Opening!

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*WHAT HAPPENED*

This skydive student's 4th static line jump escalated quickly with a premature reserve parachute opening that ripped him off the plane step! While climbing out of the small aircraft, the reserve flap came undone and exposed the reserve pin. He unknowingly dragged the top of the container across the plane's door handle above him, resulting in the reserve pin getting dislodged which caused the premature opening. The student was ripped off the plane step by the reserve, barely missed the tail of the aircraft, and — of course — his static line also deployed his main canopy, resulting in a two-out. He cutaway the main and landed safely on his reserve.

*WHY DID IT HAPPEN*

Rubbing Gear Against Plane

The jumper appears to have been sitting up against the instrument panel, may have rubbed up against the pilot's seat while getting up, and certainly rubbed up against the door and the door handle as he got out onto the step. Any one of these moments could have resulted in a premature deployment. It's actually fortunate that it wasn't until he was outside the aircraft that this jumper finally snagged something so roughly that his reserve deployed. Had that happened while he was still in the plane, it could have resulted in him getting yanked out, and possibly sustaining a fatal impact on the inside of the doorway as he got pulled out.

Poor Gear Maintenance

If you watch closely, as soon as the student begins exiting the plane, the flap protecting his reserve pin just blows away, leaving the pin unprotected. This should not be feasible with properly maintained gear. The possibility exists that the student rubbed the flap and displaced it while getting up, but the video suggests that this may have been older gear that needed some love from a rigger.

*HOW COULD IT BE PREVENTED*

Protect Your Pins and Handles

It's important for skydivers to know how to exit any given aircraft and to know about potential snag points that could catch your equipment. You'll often see experienced jumpers reaching back to check their main flap and their pilot chute anytime they move around the plane and then again one last time right before the door is opened. What they're actually doing is checking to make sure that they didn't inadvertently catch their container on something that could result in an unsafe situation. Further, once you're aware of those snag points, it's important to remember not to rub up against them!

Maintain Your Gear

The flaps protecting your reserve pin and main pin start to wear out over time and they lose the stiffness required to remain firmly seated. They need to be kept in good repair and, if they're so weak that nothing more than the wind can uncover your pins, it's definitely time to have those flaps replaced.

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[TEEMsky]

*WHAT HAPPENED*
This skydive student's 4th static line jump escalated quickly with a premature reserve parachute opening that ripped him off the plane step! While climbing out of the small aircraft, the reserve flap came undone and exposed the reserve pin. He unknowingly dragged the top of the container across the plane's door handle above him, resulting in the reserve pin getting dislodged which caused the premature opening. The student was ripped off the plane step by the reserve, barely missed the tail of the aircraft, and — of course — his static line also deployed his main canopy, resulting in a two-out. He cutaway the main and landed safely on his reserve.


*WHY DID IT HAPPEN*

Rubbing Gear Against Plane

The jumper appears to have been sitting up against the instrument panel, may have rubbed up against the pilot's seat while getting up, and certainly rubbed up against the door and the door handle as he got out onto the step. Any one of these moments could have resulted in a premature deployment. It's actually fortunate that it wasn't until he was outside the aircraft that this jumper finally snagged something so roughly that his reserve deployed. Had that happened while he was still in the plane, it could have resulted in him getting yanked out, and possibly sustaining a fatal impact on the inside of the doorway as he got pulled out.

Poor Gear Maintenance

If you watch closely, as soon as the student begins exiting the plane, the flap protecting his reserve pin just blows away, leaving the pin unprotected. This should not be feasible with properly maintained gear. The possibility exists that the student rubbed the flap and displaced it while getting up, but the video suggests that this may have been older gear that needed some love from a rigger.



*HOW COULD IT BE PREVENTED*

Protect Your Pins and Handles

It's important for skydivers to know how to exit any given aircraft and to know about potential snag points that could catch your equipment. You'll often see experienced jumpers reaching back to check their main flap and their pilot chute anytime they move around the plane and then again one last time right before the door is opened. What they're actually doing is checking to make sure that they didn't inadvertently catch their container on something that could result in an unsafe situation. Further, once you're aware of those snag points, it's important to remember not to rub up against them!

Maintain Your Gear

The flaps protecting your reserve pin and main pin start to wear out over time and they lose the stiffness required to remain firmly seated. They need to be kept in good repair and, if they're so weak that nothing more than the wind can uncover your pins, it's definitely time to have those flaps replaced.

[RobR]

He's lucky to have not ended up gift wrapped around the tail, that would have been a nightmare for both the skydiver and those on the plane, as the elevator control would be rendered useless, glad he cleared it and got down safely 😊

[dudeiplayhockey]

Guy in the door: "This is fine."

[dabprod]

I jumped with a club in Korea way back in 1963. The first thing we learned after a PLF, was how to pack your own chute. You pack it, and you jump it.

[ElementofKindness]

[instructor] "Eh. He'll be fine . . . . . probably. Let's head home to get a beer."

[macrovigilance]

That door handle!!!! what a mess. Lucky outcome to a dire situation. I think a safety review for these ops are a long time over due!

[ntunxun]

To me it looks like the reserve cover gets blown open before climb out at the 0:26-0:27 sec mark… Which could indicate that it is indeed a very old rig closed with Velcro and probably Velcro from the same time… It seems like the plane is also not well maintained at all, which have no direct impact perhaps, but could show the ‘culture’ of the drop zone.

[simonhales]

Looks like the flap blew open as he climbed out leaving the pin exposed. This is a student on his 4th jump, on the instructor to make sure he is briefed and keep him from touching the door real time.

[TheEquineFencer]

He's lucky. I had something similar about 20-30 years ago. My static in was flapping in the breeze while I was on the strut. The guy putting me out in the pre-jump briefing stated "When I open the door, you will exit the aircraft onto the strut. When I see eye contact, I will point at you and you will release and go flat and stable." The pilot chute was pulled out because the static line rubber bands came loose while I was still on the strut. It pulled the entire rig out, but was still attached by the Velcro on the top of the pilot chute and it was now upside down. The jump master never pointed to me to turn loose. He was waving his arms. I thought he was saying to move farther out on the strut, so I did. When he looked like he was going to exit the plane onto me, I said the hell with it and let go. The chute opened instantly as I just missed the tail. After I was safely on the ground we did a debriefing and that's when I found out what really was going on. I couldn't see what was behind me inflight. The pilot was doing all he could to keep the plane in the air as it was almost sideways near stall because of the drag I was putting on it. They asked me why I let go when I did. I said because I knew something wasn't right and I felt like it was the right thing to do, I was tired of hanging around. They'd taken a quick "survey" inside the plane and decided someone was going to have to nock me off the strut or they were all going to die when the chute opened and became drag with me caught on the tail and no one could get out. I jumped one more time that day.

[tiggersdad]

Had a friend in college many years ago who had a static line student on the step just like this. This was back in the day of belly reserves and when he leaned out the door to give the student the "GO", his belly reserve handle caught on the edge of the door and deployed the reserve chute. Fortunately he was mostly outside the door. It messed up his knee and bent the rear door post. A few inches more to the inside of the door and it would have been fatal for everyone.

[benedikt]

That old rig with it's manual AAD should be in a museum and not in the air!

[sanfranciscobay]

That could have easily wrapped him around or ripped the Tail off, trapped the 2 inside and crashed into the ground.

[Retiredkiwi]

Back in the seventies, i did 3 jumps on static line from 3000ft, just like this one, but you stood with left foot on landing wheel, and had no door above me, using the old round chutes.
Jump 1 was fine, except i landed with one leg either side of a barbed wire fence, luckily my legs were just long enough...
Jump 2 i had mains drogue chute tangle around my arm (no idea why, it was said my exit was fine), cutting away was not an option, as it would be still trailing from my arm. Managed to untangle it, look at it for a few moments(as not seen one before), then wonder what to do with it, so shrugged and threw it away(amazing how slow time goes in a life or death situation), luckily it opened. Double lucky as it opened at around 500ft, well after detonator on reserve should have fired, but instructor had forgotten to turn it back on, after turning it off when we temporarily had to get out again on the ground, (turned off so not bumped when getting in or out). I landed dead center of target, and was smug as, and did not recall what happened at first, when instructor ran up to me, pilot having put plane in a dive, with him forgoing his free jump, to get down as fast as possible. Was told it would hit me later, which it did.
So thinking its best to get straight back on the horse that threw you, i had jump 3 next day, even though wind was borderline for beginners, and wouldn't you know it, gale force arrived as i exited (could see folk run to and roll up the landing target as i left, which was the signal not to jump). But despite a near 180deg pendulum i was doing in the gusts, i landed fine, did a good landing roll, but then i was dragged at high speed across the airfield all the way to fence line, as i could not pull the bottom lines to deflate it, due to the roll tangling them all up. Decided that was enough warnings for me, never jumped again, preferring to stay with motorbikes for my adrenaline kicks.

Wonder if it's still true, the saying back then, "those that are all brave and vocal before first jump, often refuse too, when the time comes, whereas those that are unsure and a bit scared, usually do" ?

[michaeledwards]

time to buy your own rig and maintain it. gravity is a myth..the earth sucks

[longbowcc]

The shit we survive in this sport is truly epic.

[SJR_Media_Group]

Thanks for post... I would have been saying my prayers... he just missed the vertical stabilizer at rear. That would have left some marks. Bet he needed clean shorts after that scary incident.

[prairiepucker]

Olden days, I was a student pulling my own cord doing the first jump on the club's prototype container system that was aimed at replacing the mil surplus equipment they used for students. My main was a 32' round and packing it into a surplus container was quite a squeeze and utilized a ripcord with quite a few pins for closure. The proto container was a bit roomier and closed with 4 flaps that folded to the center and closed with a single pin. The pilot chute was a spring-loaded affair that was the last thing compressed into the container before folding the flaps and putting the pin through the closure loop. A newly designed ripcord attached to the front of one shoulder strap and had a flexible metal housing that routed around to the rear where the pin exited near the loop.

I sat with my back against the instrument panel of the 182 like the student in this vid. Door hinged at the top. We began jump run at 5200'. Pilot reached across in front of me and releases the door. Jumpmaster looks out, pulls back inside and tells me 'sit in the door.' I do. He eventually says 'get on the step.' I lean forward into the slipstream to begin the process. I'm fully out, holding onto the strut. One foot on the step and one on the wheel, and I feel a light tapping on my left shoulder. Turn my head to the left to look at the jumpmaster. He's kneeling in the doorway, eyes like pie plates, mouth wide open, screaming "GO!" I got as far as forming the idea to release my grip on the strut when "Bang!" and I was yanked backwards off the plane and immediately under canopy at 5200'. The shoulder tapping had been from the canopy deploying from the container.

It seems that the flexible metal housing that housed the ripcord had been cut too short. When I leaned forward to get on the step, the housing was lengthened which effectively shortened the ripcord causing the pin at the end to pull out of the closure loop. That released the spring-loaded pilot chute which shot clear across the cabin behind the pilot. The deployment bag fell out of the container and landed on the floor behind me. The wind was whipping everything into a froth when the jumpmaster finally got the pilot chute and container under control and whipped the mess downwards and out the door. Fortunately, it passed below the horizontal stabilizer.

The main canopy had been modified by removing a couple panels to supposedly make it 'steerable.' It was 'pointable' but certainly not 'steerable.' In still air it may have had a forward speed of 3 mph. Any higher and you always landed backing up. I had a long way to go before worrying about that. In the end there were 2 choices: Go for a landing in a corn field complete with mature stalks where there'd be time to point into the wind and have 3 mph less backward speed to worry about, or; go for a much less certain attempt to stretch the landing to cross a fence and land in a pasture, possibly pointed downwind or sideways. Having already experienced the joys of trying to untangle shroud lines from corn stalks, I opted for the pasture. Barely cleared the fence, tried to turn upwind, didn't make it, landed sideways going like a train wreck, 3 or 4 somersaults, and the canopy and lines still landed in the corn. About 3 miles from the field once I got collected and walked 1/2 mile to the nearest road where a truck was looking for me.

[pouet]

4th jump and no alti, no suit ? What DZ is this ?!

[troyjollimore]

Had something like that happen when I was a student. Hanging way out off the strut, wondering if I was given the signal to go… So I went to let go, but didn’t. When I looked back at the jump master, and saw his eyes as wide as cereal bowls and his empty hand (he had been holding my drogue…), I figured now would be a GREAT time to go! He told me later he was going to tackle me if I hadn’t. We figured the big Manta wing might have torn the tail off the plane… 😳

[SEILLC]

That was sketchy no doubt, but I bet the sketchiest part was the the one we didn't see...the chop.