Skydiving fatality in Longmont, Colorado, USA, 27 January 2024

SFL-2024-002 · Cause: No pull / low pull

Partially verified Facts as reported in the sources below. This is not an official investigation.

Incident

Date
27.01.2024
Country
USA
Drop zone
Mile-Hi Skydiving Center
Place
Longmont, Colorado
Context
Sport / fun jump
Jump type
Wingsuit
Phase
Deployment

Jumper

Gender
Male
Age
36
Licence
D
Years in sport
18

Equipment

AAD
Not installed

Cause

Category
No pull / low pull
Contributing factors
No AAD / AAD off

What happened

Wingsuit jump from a King Air, his second of the day with a new suit he was struggling to control. He became unstable trying to deploy, spun and tumbled, and could not get the main out. He fell through trees; the reserve was found partly out of its bag. No AAD.

Lessons for safety

Transition to a new wingsuit gradually. Practise finding the pilot chute, and fit an AAD.

Sources

  • www.uspa.org Federation, USPA 2024 fatality summary, case #6 (anonymous)

Is something wrong or missing? Send a correction and mention SFL-2024-002.