I Thought This Only Happened In Cartoons

[MIflyer]

I heard about this incident but was not sure it was real.


View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/282RHZLQ4dc

 

[Sabrejet]

This story dates from 1988.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I heard about this incident but was not sure it was real.


View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/282RHZLQ4dc

Complacency. With over four hundred jumps, you need your latest one to be as prepared as your first.

 

[ThomasP]

There was an incident reported in the 1990s (I think) where an experienced jumper acting as the cameraman for a group jump, amidst all the excitement, forgot to put on his parachute before he jumped.

 

[MIflyer]

There was an incident reported in the 1990s (I think) where an experienced jumper acting as the cameraman for a group jump, amidst all the excitement, forgot to put on his parachute before he jumped.

Yes, that was when I first heard of it. Did not know if it was true, since no details were given, but I guess it was. The way it was explained was that he had been filming jumps all day and when he went up for the last time the other jumpers assumed he was just going to take shots of the jump from the airplane and thus did not need a parachute.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Yes, that was when I first heard of it. Did not know if it was true, since no details were given, but I guess it was. The way it was explained was that he had been filming jumps all day and when he went up for the last time the other jumpers assumed he was just going to take shots of the jump from the airplane and thus did not need a parachute.

I'm glad he wasn't responsible for anyone else in that aircraft, like those who jump with a newbie attached.

 

[MIflyer]

I'm glad he wasn't responsible for anyone else in that aircraft, like those who jump with a newbie attached.

I recall reading of a military skydiving club in Germany where one weekend a woman was trying to work up the nerve to make her first jump. They were using a H-34 helicopter. After going up on every flight that day and backing out at the last minute, she asked to go up on the last flight, which was for experienced jumpers, a mass jump from high altitude. She had been up so many times without jumping that they figured she knew the routine and could act as loadmaster, but not actually jump herself. At altitude she made the mistake of allowing the jumpers to get in the back of the compartment, with the result that the copter pitched back and started dropping. The pilots needed to regain control and hit the Bail Out Bell button. The jumpers fought their way forward to the door and jumped; the helicopter pilots regained control. Back on the ground they found the compartment was empty. The recalcitrant woman had jumped along with everyone else and when she got down she was elated.

Now, that incident had a happy ending but that is not always the case. Several years back a Cessna 182 being used for skydiving at an airfield in south Florida apparently suffered a similar load distribution problem and entered a spin. The video of the incident showed an absolutely perfect spin right into the ground at the airport, killing everyone on board.