SFL-2023-045 · Cause: Other
Unconfirmed Facts as reported in the sources below. This is not an official investigation.
Incident
- Date
- 18.06.2023
- Date of death
- 19.06.2023
- Country
- Norway
- Drop zone
- Kjeller airfield
- Place
- Lillestrøm
- Context
- Sport / fun jump
- Jump type
- Demo jump
- Role
- Other
- Phase
- On the ground
Jumper
- Gender
- Male
- Total jumps
- 3,000
Cause
- Category
- Other
What happened
Very experienced skydiver (just under 3,000 jumps, former accuracy judge) working as ground crew at a public demonstration jump on an air sports day; he was not jumping himself. He stood close to the landing target; the last of three demonstration jumpers, making low S-turns on a narrow landing area, struck him as he moved into the landing path. He walked away at first but died the next day. The Norwegian Air Sports Federation's investigation found he had stood too close to the landing area and moved the wrong way when the jumper was too low to avoid him; the narrow landing area, the target placement and the lack of a minimum distance rule for ground crew contributed.
Lessons for safety
Ground crew and spectators need a fixed safe distance from the landing area, especially at temporary demo sites. If a canopy is coming at you, hold your position or move clearly away from its path – do not cross in front of it.
Sources
- nlf.no Federation
Is something wrong or missing? Send a correction and mention SFL-2023-045.