SFL-2022-016 · Cause: Landing – intentional low turn
Partially verified Facts as reported in the sources below. This is not an official investigation.
Incident
- Date
- 25.04.2022
- Country
- USA
- Drop zone
- Skydown Skydiving
- Place
- Caldwell, Idaho
- Context
- Student
- Jump type
- Tandem
- Role
- Tandem passenger
- Phase
- Approach & landing
Jumper
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 22
- Total jumps
- 1
Cause
- Category
- Landing – intentional low turn
- Contributing factors
- Wind / turbulence
What happened
Tandem passenger on his first jump. In winds of 22 mph gusting to 30 mph, the instructor (1,600 jumps) started a 180° turn at about 100 ft; the pair hit the ground in a steep dive. The instructor said he regularly turned to final in high winds. He survived with injuries.
Lessons for safety
Low turns in high winds are especially dangerous on tandems: the descent rate builds faster than the canopy can recover.
Sources
- www.uspa.org Federation, USPA 2022 fatality summary, case #11 (anonymous)
Is something wrong or missing? Send a correction and mention SFL-2022-016.