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Okay, I was a skydiver for 12 years, the entire decade of the 80's and a couple more. I got a USPA (united states parachute association) 'D' (expert) license along the way. In this video, the guy is a Front Floater. The jumper in the door facing the airplane is the middle floater, the guy outside the skin aft is the rear floater. Somehow the front floaters reserve parachute ripcord got pulled. I figure someone trying to get grips on the door seal for leverage when exiting. Since it was his reserve, he cannot use anything but his Zack knife to separate himself from the canopy. The main canopy has a single point cutaway system, called a three ring, that will separate a malfunctioning main from the container. This is to prevent the reserve canopy from getting tangled up with the main canopy flopping around over his head. In the this case, he has to lose the reserve canopy to prevent an entanglement and the only way is to cut the lines from the risers. A pretty damn expensive incident. truth be told. Once he cuts the lines, which are probably kevlar, he gets stable and pulls his pilot chute and opens his main canopy and what's left of the reserve gets in the way so he has a bad landing. Typically under a square the landings are easy tippy toe. If I can confuse anyone more. please let me know.
Video shows moment skydiver cuts himself free from tangled parachute
Australia's transport safety investigator has released video footage of a skydiver cutting himself free from his parachute after it became snagged on a plane wing in mid-air.
