1 Matches (out of a total of 833 incidents)

1. Date	Location	Category	Age	# Jumps	AAD?/RSL?	Dropzone.com Report	Dropzone.com Discussion
   2/9/2002	Humacao, PR	MAL?	32	280	Y/?		#88277
   Description: For reasons which are unclear, the deceased experienced a two-canopy out malfunction, which turned into a downplane. He impacted in this configuration.
   Lessons:More information appreciated.
   USPA Description: After an uneventful freefall, this jumper opened his main parachute at an altitude reported to be approximately 2,5000 feet. The canopy immediately began to spin to the right, After some time passed, he deployed the reserve. It full inflated but began to dive around the main to form a spinning downplane. At approximately 300 feet, the jumper released the brakes on the reserve canopy, which accelerated the spin and dive. The hard landing resulted in multiple injuries, including injuries to the head. He responded to initial CPR but died within a few hours.
   USPA Conclusions:This jumper was wearing a video camera that provided a great deal of information as to what occurred on this jump. The main parachute opened with the right brake line stowed and the left brake line released, which caused the spin to the right. The jumper tried to control the spin by pulling the opposite riser but apparently never saw the released steering line. He eventually let go of the riser and tried to grab his emergency handles but deployed the reserve without a cutaway. He appears to have grasped the entire main lift web around his cutaway pillow. The tow canopies began to spin in a downplane, and the jumper attempted to release the main riser by pulling at the cable end near the riser itself and then attempted to pull the cutaway handle again, still grasping the main lift web with the cutaway pillow. He then released the brakes on the reserve canopy in an attempt to gain some control of the two spinning canopies. He hit the ground shortly thereafter. Jumpers need to practice emergency procedures frequently, using correct technique. Practice and familiarity with his equipment might have helped prevent his critical error in an actual emergency situation. This advice obviously applies to every skydiver, not just students. There have been several recent fatalities caused by jumpers apparently becoming confused in emergency situations and taking the wrong actions. In this case, simply pulling both toggles of the main parachute at the same time would have released the brakes for each side of the parachute and allowed the canopy to fly straight. When performing emergency procedures, the first thing a person should do is look at the handle that will be pulled and then grab it, making sure that only the handle is pulled and not part of the harness or jumpsuit.
   Name	Chris Wittgartner