10-year-old Killed When Skydiver Lands On Her

[george]

10-year-old killed when skydiver lands on her

ROI ET: -- A ten-year-old girl was fatally injured when an army skydiver accidentally landed on her during a skydiving show as part of Children's Day celebrations.

The accident happened at the Sixth Infantry Division in Sri Somdej district at 10 am.

Children were treated with skydiving show as part of Children's Day celebrations.

During the show, a skydiver lost control because of strong wind and landed among the audience, hitting the girl. She died later of sustained injuries.

-- The Nation 2009-01-10

[TAWP]

Oh-man. :/

[Fore Man]

I quit skydiving in the States after making over 5,000 freefalls in the Army and and while off-duty over a 30-year period. All I can say is that there is no excuse for a demo jumper to allow himself to be blown off course that far, unless he had a malfunction and had to ride down a damaged main--or perhaps deploy his reserve. And I know for a fact the RTA uses very steerable ram-air canopies...nobody still flies the old drag-type chutes that popularized skydiving in the 70s. Even the reserves today are ram-air in design and highly steerable....and have been for over two decades. From my experience as a jumpmaster on countless demonstration jumps, the fault for this fatality can undoubtedly be traced to 1) faulty jumpmastering, 2) lack of jumper experience or 3) equipment malfunction. In the first case, the jumpmaster may have made a major error by failing to properly compute the exit point, or "spot" over the ground from which the team would exit their helicopter. This is routinely done by tossing a crepe-paper wind streamer out over the intended target at pack opening altitude and watching to see where is lands on the surface. This tells the JM how far their opened canopies would drift after pack opening, which is normally at 2,500 feet. The correct "spot" is then calculated by taking this same wind drift distance and moving it directly back upwind from the target, then adding an allowance factor for the drift of the jumpers in freefall. It isn't rocket science but a lot of sport jumpmasters find it difficult and a bit scary, as they must stick their head and upper body well outside the aircraft and make sure they are looking down vertically and not allowing any creep in their sight angle to the ground when throwing the streamer out. I made many freefall jumps with the RTA in the past and know they use the same safety precautions as we do in the USA--heck, we taught them--but these safety precautions are often abbreviated or simply ignored. The fault lies then with the aircraft pilot, the jumpmaster, and the jumper in that order. The pilot is responsible for everything that happens..or fails to happen aboard his aircraft. We normally plotted out our demo preparations carefully with our pilots as they would be partially liable in the event of any accidents caused by jumpers leaving their A/C. Does this hold true here in Thailand? Probably not at all.

In my second fault scenario, the jumper, realizing that he may be endangering the crowd below, should have made a quick decision to divert to an alternate landing site further downwind. I've had to do this myself many times and once again, it is easy to do, but sometimes hard to accomplish depending on obstacles, power lines, other hazards and available attitude. We were taught to cause injury to ourselves rather than injure, maim or kill a ground observer. Much the same as pilots who take every measure to make sure their A/C will not cause vital damage once they must eject from it. I also suspect that not every RTA demo jumper is fully-qualified to participate in a parachute demonstration. It takes a lot of experience and confidence to carry off tricky demo jumps safely and accurately. Whether inexperience was a factor in this case is unknown to me, but it certainly would seem so, and is normally the number one cause of incidents.

And the third fault scenario would be some kind of equipment failure that prevented the jumper from choosing his landing site...or denying him a decision to fly over the crowd and land downwind of them.

Demonstration jumps in the USA and I suspect in Europe require close coordination and approval from the federal aviation authorities to prevent danger to innocent bystanders...and to the jumpers themselves. Where the military has airspace jurisdiction, they also have the authority to plan and execute demo jumps within that airspace, and I am certain that throughout Thailand--excepting large municipal airport areas--there is no civil aviation involvement or oversight in these activities....regardless of who regulates the airspace in question.

Finally, if winds are excessive, then the jumpmaster and pilot must reach a decision to abort the jump. Jumpers are a macho lot, and it is not easy to abort a long-awaited demo opportunity. But it appears that a major error was also made in this regard in Roi Et.

It goes without saying....may this unfortunate child rest in peace and that her family find solace...what a sad and avoidable tragedy!

Edited January 10, 2009 by Fore Man

[myauq]

what a terrible event. my condolences to the child's family and friends.

i didn't know anything about sky-diving before reading this thread, but Fore Man has added to my knowledge. i've learnt something i didn't know before. i'm not saying that i want to learn more about sky-diving now, or will even think about jumping myself because of reading the thread, but it's good to hear from people with different experiences from one's own, with much thought being given to conveying new - accurately thought-out - information in the message.

i think what i'm saying is there's not really enough of this on TV.

thanks Fore Man

[Fore Man]

I appreciate your kudos, myauq, but I wish I'd never had cause to make that post.

In retrospect, I am sure the culprit was the high winds...as there is a pattern of gusty weather all over this region due to colder upper atmospheric air being pushed down from China. They should have canceled or at least postponed their parachute demonstration in Roi Et province. Had they done so, a little girl would still be with her family this afternoon. Shame.

Edited January 10, 2009 by Fore Man

[Daffy D]

i didn't know anything about sky-diving before reading this thread, but Fore Man has added to my knowledge. I've learned something i didn't know before. I'm not saying that i want to learn more about sky-diving now, or will even think about jumping myself because of reading the thread, but it's good to hear from people with different experiences from one's own, with much thought being given to conveying new - accurately thought-out - information in the message.

i think what I'm saying is there's not really enough of this on TV.

thanks Fore Man

Exactly my sentiments, this forum is goldmine of information, learn something new nearly every day thanks "Fore Man"

What a terrible thing to happen on what was supposed to be a fun day out - I feel for the family could happen to any of us.

[joskydive]

I quit skydiving in the States after making over 5,000 freefalls in the Army and and while off-duty over a 30-year period. All I can say is that there is no excuse for a demo jumper to allow himself to be blown off course that far, unless he had a malfunction and had to ride down a damaged main--or perhaps deploy his reserve. And I know for a fact the RTA uses very steerable ram-air canopies...nobody still flies the old drag-type chutes that popularized skydiving in the 70s. Even the reserves today are ram-air in design and highly steerable....and have been for over two decades. From my experience as a jumpmaster on countless demonstration jumps, the fault for this fatality can undoubtedly be traced to 1) faulty jumpmastering, 2) lack of jumper experience or 3) equipment malfunction. In the first case, the jumpmaster may have made a major error by failing to properly compute the exit point, or "spot" over the ground from which the team would exit their helicopter. This is routinely done by tossing a crepe-paper wind streamer out over the intended target at pack opening altitude and watching to see where is lands on the surface. This tells the JM how far their opened canopies would drift after pack opening, which is normally at 2,500 feet. The correct "spot" is then calculated by taking this same wind drift distance and moving it directly back upwind from the target, then adding an allowance factor for the drift of the jumpers in freefall. It isn't rocket science but a lot of sport jumpmasters find it difficult and a bit scary, as they must stick their head and upper body well outside the aircraft and make sure they are looking down vertically and not allowing any creep in their sight angle to the ground when throwing the streamer out. I made many freefall jumps with the RTA in the past and know they use the same safety precautions as we do in the USA--heck, we taught them--but these safety precautions are often abbreviated or simply ignored. The fault lies then with the aircraft pilot, the jumpmaster, and the jumper in that order. The pilot is responsible for everything that happens..or fails to happen aboard his aircraft. We normally plotted out our demo preparations carefully with our pilots as they would be partially liable in the event of any accidents caused by jumpers leaving their A/C. Does this hold true here in Thailand? Probably not at all.

I still skydive here and have for the last 10 years, although I am a 36 year veteran and you are right, we don't use the old rounds anymore, we use the ram-air squares which are totally steerable. The problem I've found here is the RTA don't have the finances to upgrade their equipment so therefore use canopies which are 20 + years old. (very old, well used and very porus) and no AAD's.

Also, I doubt very much that they jumped from a helicopter or tossed any crepe-paper to check the spot, (they never do) and also, to them it's a time and gasoline waste because that means they would have to go around again. Normally, the Pilot tells them to jump from his GPS and when ordered to do so they will! In my experience here, there are very few who can actually spot anyway!

In my second fault scenario, the jumper, realizing that he may be endangering the crowd below, should have made a quick decision to divert to an alternate landing site further downwind. I've had to do this myself many times and once again, it is easy to do, but sometimes hard to accomplish depending on obstacles, power lines, other hazards and available attitude. We were taught to cause injury to ourselves rather than injure, maim or kill a ground observer. Much the same as pilots who take every measure to make sure their A/C will not cause vital damage once they must eject from it. I also suspect that not every RTA demo jumper is fully-qualified to participate in a parachute demonstration. It takes a lot of experience and confidence to carry off tricky demo jumps safely and accurately. Whether inexperience was a factor in this case is unknown to me, but it certainly would seem so, and is normally the number one cause of incidents.

I also agree with you here, however, in my experience there is a major possibility that there wasn't an overshoot area atall and also any military jumper will go and take the opportunity to jump as they don't often get the chance. This then qualifies them for demo jumps because they've just done one. Inexperience, I believe, is a major factor here because they just don't get the opportunity to jump regularly and can't afford to jump at civilian sites because their incomes are so low. I repair their equipment almost for free because they just haven't got the money and I'd rather see them safe than just making do.

And the third fault scenario would be some kind of equipment failure that prevented the jumper from choosing his landing site...or denying him a decision to fly over the crowd and land downwind of them.

Demonstration jumps in the USA and I suspect in Europe require close coordination and approval from the federal aviation authorities to prevent danger to innocent bystanders...and to the jumpers themselves. Where the military has airspace jurisdiction, they also have the authority to plan and execute demo jumps within that airspace, and I am certain that throughout Thailand--excepting large municipal airport areas--there is no civil aviation involvement or oversight in these activities....regardless of who regulates the airspace in question.

Your assumption is correct here.

Finally, if winds are excessive, then the jumpmaster and pilot must reach a decision to abort the jump. Jumpers are a macho lot, and it is not easy to abort a long-awaited demo opportunity. But it appears that a major error was also made in this regard in Roi Et.

Unfortunately, the winds were excessive with almost instant direction changes today too. If, as I believe these jumpers were exited from the aircraft by GPS and had no ground crew or a wind sox it would not have been noted and assumed ok. It would only be while they are trying to set up their approach under canopy that they would find the wind speed and direction might not be in their favour and unfortunately, this is way past the time to change your mind.

The reason I know that today had some really bad gusts is that we did 6 Tandems and they were quite difficult to land due to the serge of gusts which were kicking in around an altitude of 50 feet.

It goes without saying....may this unfortunate child rest in peace and that her family find solace...what a sad and avoidable tragedy!

Unfortunately, this information is of no consolation to this child or her family and is such a sad event on what should have been such a special day. May you rest in peace little girl. I'm thinking of you.

[Scott]

Or--they just let the audience move into the area where the jumpers were landing. I mean TIT, why have safety measures? Especially for children on Children's Day.

[joskydive]

Or--they just let the audience move into the area where the jumpers were landing. I mean TIT, why have safety measures? Especially for children on Children's Day.

Unfortunately, that has been known to happen too and not just here in Thailand!

[SomchaiCNX]

R.I.P. little girl.

Sad very sad.

I quit jumping (skydiving) when I moved to Thailand 16 years ago.

@ joskydive I asume you operate out of PTY?

[warfie]

Terrible... an absolute tragedy, whatever the (probably avoidable) cause.

R.I.P.