British man dies in failed parachute jump from Pattaya condo

[Dave0206]

I should imagine it was a short video ?

[PETERTHEEATER]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

.......clutching a blue parachute, which the police suspected he had deployed in a failed attempt to slow his descent.

Amazing powers of deduction by the RTP.

[johnnyjap]

1 hour ago, incnoi said:

As an experienced and retired base jumper I can give some insight.

 

He setup a static line but misrouted his bridle through his lateral strap, the pins did extract and he got partial canopy inflation but this was not enough to save him. Nathan had around 120 BASE jumps and 5,500 skydives so he was an experienced jumper, but for some reason, maybe nerves at jumping from this location caused him to be careless in his setup and resulted in the fatal bridle miss-routing error.

 

Modern lightweight BASE canopies under a static line setup can be used from as low as 120feet depending on a few factors like the jumpers weight, canopy size/weight and jump altitude, so in this case a jump from 290 feet is not considered low in the sport of BASE jumping and is generally a pretty safe height ruling out external factors such as weather and lading hazards like power lines.

 

Other posters commenting on minimum safe altitude of 2,500 feet, this is for skydiving where a skydiving parachute is very different to a BASE jumping parachute. A BASE jumping parachute for a sub-terminal jump is packed with no slider, and a very large pilot chute up to 48", in Nathans case the bridle was tied to the building with 70lb rip cord in whats known as a static line, as he jumps and fall away from the building the static line pulls out his parachute to full line extension and then the 70lb cord breaks under tension and he should have been under a fully inflated canopy by arrox. 175 feet with plenty of time to fly his landing pattern and land safely. As mentioned in this case his bridle was wrapped around his harness lateral strap so the cord broke too early and was not able to fully extract his canopy.

 

Human error and nobody to give him a safety check resulted in this fatality, condolences to his family and friends and great luck that nobody else at the scene was injured by his carless jump.

Thank you for your expert info, when I saw the video it was the first thing I noticed. RIP

[JohnAllan]

He couldn't work out where the LIFT was!?

[pacovl46]

6 hours ago, Henryford said:

A person would fall 290 feet in under 4 seconds. Is that enough time for a parachute to deploy AND slow you down.

A regular parachute used for skydiving wouldn't be suitable for such a low jump, that's why they use special base-jumping chutes that are smaller and open a lot quicker. From that height you'd have to pull the chute immediately, though. Any delay for whatever reason will most likely be fatal.

[huangnon]

Ah well, he died doing something he loved. (And didn't take anyone with him).

 

"An honourable death", as the Japanese say.

[Chris Daley]

Sometimes taking the elevator is just easier.

[Georgealbert]

1 hour ago, incnoi said:

As an experienced and retired base jumper I can give some insight.

 

He setup a static line but misrouted his bridle through his lateral strap, the pins did extract and he got partial canopy inflation but this was not enough to save him. Nathan had around 120 BASE jumps and 5,500 skydives so he was an experienced jumper, but for some reason, maybe nerves at jumping from this location caused him to be careless in his setup and resulted in the fatal bridle miss-routing error.

 

Modern lightweight BASE canopies under a static line setup can be used from as low as 120feet depending on a few factors like the jumpers weight, canopy size/weight and jump altitude, so in this case a jump from 290 feet is not considered low in the sport of BASE jumping and is generally a pretty safe height ruling out external factors such as weather and lading hazards like power lines.

 

Other posters commenting on minimum safe altitude of 2,500 feet, this is for skydiving where a skydiving parachute is very different to a BASE jumping parachute. A BASE jumping parachute for a sub-terminal jump is packed with no slider, and a very large pilot chute up to 48", in Nathans case the bridle was tied to the building with 70lb rip cord in whats known as a static line, as he jumps and fall away from the building the static line pulls out his parachute to full line extension and then the 70lb cord breaks under tension and he should have been under a fully inflated canopy by arrox. 175 feet with plenty of time to fly his landing pattern and land safely. As mentioned in this case his bridle was wrapped around his harness lateral strap so the cord broke too early and was not able to fully extract his canopy.

 

Human error and nobody to give him a safety check resulted in this fatality, condolences to his family and friends and great luck that nobody else at the scene was injured by his carless jump.

Thank you, very informative post and great to hear from someone with firsthand experience.

 

But please beware, as many arm chair experts here get upset when someone challenges their ideas.

[Montnoveau]

8 hours ago, prakhonchai nick said:

Brave??? Choose another word!

Darwin Award candidate'?

[Will B Good]

Incredibly selfish......could have killed innocents......so no sympathy from me.

[John Drake]

2 hours ago, Charlest1971 said:

This man could have killed innocent people, walking around at the bottom of the building.

 

This is the main point. That, and the trauma some poor person innocently walking in the area might incur on seeing him turn himself into a gob of goo. Probably there was some psychological impact to innocents. People who do these sorts of things deserve to be locked up and fined severely.

Edited January 29 by John Drake

[off road pat]

9 hours ago, dslocum said:

I'm an amateur pilot and don't know much about BASE jumping or skydiving, but the article says the chute failed to open.  Yet from the photos, it appears that it DID open and thus deployed, leaving me to think that he simply failed to "catch" the air he hoped for in only 29 floors.  Who knows, the air currents may have conspired against him this day.  Too bad.

 

RIP Dear Sir!

In this case of low altitude base jump, the jumper hold the parachute in his hand and release/trow it in the air while jumping,....i have seen base jumpers do this on tv,

[incnoi]

27 minutes ago, off road pat said:

In this case of low altitude base jump, the jumper hold the parachute in his hand and release/trow it in the air while jumping,....i have seen base jumpers do this on tv,

 

The fastest inflation is with a static line, which he correctly did, besides the obvious misrouted bridle which is clear in the video.

 

Jumping with pilot chute hand-held or stowed in the bottom of the container are pretty much the same and depend on personal preference. When I used to BASE jump I preferred having the pilot chute in the bottom of the container since I could do a gear check then gear up and know everything is in the right place, also you can do a running jump with your hands free and focus on longer object separation and correct body position before deploying your pilot chute.

 

If your pilot chute is hand-held, you have a loop of bridle over your shoulder than can snag, more chance of miss-routing your bridle and it's harder to do a running exit so less object separation, then you have less time to react if you get a 180 degree off heading opening.

[sambum]

 ".........was found by police and rescuers near the exit of Building B of the condominium complex at Na Kluea subdistrict, Bang Lamung district, Chonburi"

 

"at an unspecified condominium complex in the Naklua sub-district of the Banglamung district, Chonburi province"

 

And both articles by the same poster - 13 hours ago!!!

[ningnong]

13 minutes ago, incnoi said:

 

The fastest inflation is with a static line, which he correctly did, besides the obvious misrouted bridle which is clear in the video.

 

Jumping with pilot chute hand-held or stowed in the bottom of the container are pretty much the same and depend on personal preference. When I used to BASE jump I preferred having the pilot chute in the bottom of the container since I could do a gear check then gear up and know everything is in the right place, also you can do a running jump with your hands free and focus on longer object separation and correct body position before deploying your pilot chute.

 

If your pilot chute is hand-held, you have a loop of bridle over your shoulder than can snag, more chance of miss-routing your bridle and it's harder to do a running exit so less object separation, then you have less time to react if you get a 180 degree off heading opening.

Thanks for your explanations.

 

The video of his jump clearly shows the misrouted bridle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyYe8LJwFKw

 

This slow motion video shows how a static line bridle should look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ3mlMduFDw

[AlexRich]

8 hours ago, Card said:

You mean incredibly stupid.

No. Incredibly brave. It takes guts to BASE jump, it’s not a sport for the faint hearted. One mistake and you are dead. I don’t see them as much different from mountaineers braving the “death zone” at Everest. 
 

Like the French guy who traversed between the Twin Towers in the 70’s on a tightrope. Mad as a box of frogs but brave nonetheless. 

[AlexRich]

6 hours ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

If you see the video of it brave doesn't come into it. Both cameraman and jumper come across as clowns. If you do the math of this, the building is only about 100m high, so about half the minimum height for a parachute to open on time.

 

Thoughts and prayers to the unfortunate witnesses on the ground who would have been needlessly traumatized by the acts of the reckless.

There are many clowns in this world, especially the ones who seem to believe that they are “experts” on Base jumping (and every other subject they choose to speak on).

 

The jump was doable. But even a doable jump can end in tragedy. 

[IrishInThailand]

R.I.P and bear in mind the family left behind. The costs to retrieve him, the dealing with Thais, the insureance company (if he had insureance for such activitys and will they pay out).   Welcome to fooook load of troubles. Sad

[IrishInThailand]

2 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Incredibly selfish......could have killed innocents......so no sympathy from me.

Plus the costs his family wil have to pick up !

[Cabradelmar]

Unfortunate. Sad ever. Certainly bad luck. But it's hard to feel pity (except for the people who will miss him) when someone does something that amounts to nothing more than an unsanctioned glory seeking stunt.

[kimamey]

14 hours ago, kwilco said:

had he done base jumps before?

 

I'm not certain but I think he had.

[soi3eddie]

It looks like, as posted above, that the small chute line was trapped within the main harness and could not deploy the main chute on jumping. The full video is below but does not show anything gory. I ask that for clarity, mods do not remove this. Just for answering the real question as to what happened and to end speculation. From what I see, the jump was rather hurried with less than sufficient safety checks (likely worried about security stopping the jump). A very sad tragedy to an adventurous thrill seeker. RIP.

 

Edited January 29 by soi3eddie

[jts-khorat]

12 hours ago, jimn said:

https://youtu.be/SyYe8LJwFKw?si=aE7dssXL8CrCevH

 

According to the press, he did a lot of base jumps before, so was experienced.

 

However, as can be seen in the video, the switching the parachute from the right to the left hand was what ultimately killed him: according to the report I saw, it tangled with his backpack straps because he had pulled it under it. Therefore it did not open in time. RIP.

[NobbyClarke]

Brave??? Luckily no one else was hurt or killed.

R.I.P.

[Paris333]

All life-saving components have an expiry date of life and an expiry date of operation.
In particular, parachutes have a specific way of "compression" in the bag so that when the owner is in a hurry they do not jam.
I have watched how rescue workers pack the parachute for both the fuselage of the fighter jet and the pilot.
In addition, all professional parachutists before each jump have two parachutes, one of which is in the chest as a reserve in case the main parachute does not open.

 

How 75,000 Parachutes Are Packed Each Year At Army Airborne School | Boot Camp

 

[tgw]

3 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

It looks like, as posted above, that the small chute line was trapped within the main harness and could not deploy the main chute on jumping. The full video is below but does not show anything gory. I ask that for clarity, mods do not remove this. Just for answering the real question as to what happened and to end speculation. From what I see, the jump was rather hurried with less than sufficient safety checks (likely worried about security stopping the jump). A very sad tragedy to an adventurous thrill seeker. RIP.

 

 

 

RIP.

completely nuts

[jacko45k]

16 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

But please beware, as many arm chair experts here get upset when someone challenges their ideas.

There would be few people to opine if it were only open to those with similar experience to  the victim!

[Georgealbert]

25 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

There would be few people to opine if it were only open to those with similar experience to  the victim!

 

25 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

There would be few people to opine if it were only open to those with similar experience to  the victim!

Happy for anyone to opine as much as they like, is that not what forums are for?

 

What annoys me, is the poster I replied to, has clearly demonstrated his knowledge and experience, and I respect that, but there are many people of this forum that think they know more from watching youtube in their armchair than someone with real life knowledge. The Dunning Kruger effect is often on display.

Edited January 29 by Georgealbert

[Old Croc]

1 hour ago, Georgealbert said:

 

Happy for anyone to opine as much as they like, is that not what forums are for?

 

What annoys me, is the poster I replied to, has clearly demonstrated his knowledge and experience, and I respect that, but there are many people of this forum that think they know more from watching youtube in their armchair than someone with real life knowledge. The Dunning Kruger effect is often on display.

It should be called The Dunning Kruger-Trump effect.

[Will B Good]

23 hours ago, Dave0206 said:

I should imagine it was a short video ?

Just the highlights