Thai police cadets: Experts to probe parachute tragedy

[peecee]

forgive my ignorance, but why are "POLICE" cadets doing jump training anyway ?....I mean how many people can you extort money from at 10,000 feet ?...

They like to collect macho badges, I've yet to find any other reason!

It also seems that everyone in the army is jump qualified!!

[yougivemebaby]

The article I read yesterday said that the chord that failed is attached to each guy's parachute so when they jump it pulls on it and deploys the chute. There is an emergency chord or an emergency chute, I think the article said. Some of the guys pulled their emergency chords and deployed their chutes. One guy apparently landed in a lake and was injured and went to hospital.

How many that jumped had to deploy their own chutes? Why did these guys fail to deploy their own chutes?

I find it hard to believe it was malicious intent to harm one individual. Sounds more like a mechanical failure and therefore a responsibility of the operators. [/

quote]

Tragically this isn't the first time this has happened. One guy was stuck with his line to the back of the plane for a couple of Intense minutes before they cut him free. His reserve did t work or wasn't deployed. Imagine the fear these guys must feel knowing the real chance of

Dying.

I agree. What a waste of money for the 'police ' to get their airborne certification. When in the world woul they need to be deployed ? 5555 they're too lazy

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[yougivemebaby]

I saw the video of this incident. The person behind the video never pointed the camera towards the inside of the plane. I found that rather disturbing. It did not show whether those on the plane were trying to reel the poor fellow back into the plane or not. It did not show whether any effort was ever done to recover that cadet. The videographer, however, was able to zoom in and follow the cadet falling to his death. Something very fishy about this incident.

It is not possible to reel someone back into the aircraft using the Static Line, the weight of the falling Jumper is intended to pull open the parachute backpack and then pull out the Parachute itself; the way the Static Line is attached to the backpack is no way strong enough to bear the weight of the Jumper - that's the whole point; if it was strong enough to bear such weight it would never break open as designed and the Jumper would always end up hanging outside the 'plane.

Patrick

Yes this happened a few months ago.

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[chrisinth]

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The article I read yesterday said that the chord that failed is attached to each guy's parachute so when they jump it pulls on it and deploys the chute. There is an emergency chord or an emergency chute, I think the article said. Some of the guys pulled their emergency chords and deployed their chutes. One guy apparently landed in a lake and was injured and went to hospital.

How many that jumped had to deploy their own chutes? Why did these guys fail to deploy their own chutes?

I find it hard to believe it was malicious intent to harm one individual. Sounds more like a mechanical failure and therefore a responsibility of the operators.

I think that is an even bigger question, as to why the emergency chutes didn't deploy. The static line is attached to the plane fuselage and the 'D' (deployment) ring on the jumper's pack which, when pulled taught will open and release the primary chute.

A reserve static line can be used, this is attached to the emergency chute container and is activated when the primary chute is cut away. Even if used (RSL), the jumper can deploy the secondary chute manually with the ripcord. Explained further below:

"A reserve static line, occasionally called a Stevens Lanyard, is a device that automatically opens the reserve parachute container when the main parachute is cut-away. The RSL is a lanyard connecting one or both of the main parachute risers to the reserve ripcord.

The primary advantage of using an RSL is a faster reserve parachute deployment compared with using emergency handles alone; after a cut-away, the RSL will usually activate before the reserve deployment ripcord is pulled. However, proper emergency procedures require the reserve ripcord to be pulled in the event that the RSL is disconnected or not functioning correctly. An RSL also offers protection in the event a jumper cuts-away but does not (or can not) reach for the reserve deployment handle.

The RSL can be disengaged by a skydiver in situations where it is desirable to detach the main parachute without deploying the reserve. Examples of such situations may include certain high-wind landings (in case the parachute must be cut away if the skydiver is being dragged across the ground) or when performing canopy formations. The RSL attaches to the risers through a small metal loop that will disconnect when a fabric tab is pulled."

[Tchooptip]

Apparently it was not the actual Static Line - which is attached to each Parachute - that failed, it was the Cable which stretches down the length of the aircraft and to which the individual Static Lines are clipped prior to jumping. This Cable acts as a "Hard Point" to pull the Parachute from the backpack as the Jumper falls away from the 'plane.

I have not read anything about the height at which the trainees jumped but usually it is quite low, that, and the fact that these jumpers were very inexperienced (I believe that at least for some it was their first jump) meant that they did not have the experience or time necessary to realise their Main had not deployed and then go through the procedure to deploy the Reserve.

Patrick

The jump was from around 1,000m - which gives you less than 10 second to make decision to deploy reserve

Of course and I guess thats a good explanation!

[p_brownstone]

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The article I read yesterday said that the chord that failed is attached to each guy's parachute so when they jump it pulls on it and deploys the chute. There is an emergency chord or an emergency chute, I think the article said. Some of the guys pulled their emergency chords and deployed their chutes. One guy apparently landed in a lake and was injured and went to hospital.

How many that jumped had to deploy their own chutes? Why did these guys fail to deploy their own chutes?

I find it hard to believe it was malicious intent to harm one individual. Sounds more like a mechanical failure and therefore a responsibility of the operators.

I think that is an even bigger question, as to why the emergency chutes didn't deploy. The static line is attached to the plane fuselage and the 'D' (deployment) ring on the jumper's pack which, when pulled taught will open and release the primary chute.

A reserve static line can be used, this is attached to the emergency chute container and is activated when the primary chute is cut away. Even if used (RSL), the jumper can deploy the secondary chute manually with the ripcord. Explained further below:

"A reserve static line, occasionally called a Stevens Lanyard, is a device that automatically opens the reserve parachute container when the main parachute is cut-away. The RSL is a lanyard connecting one or both of the main parachute risers to the reserve ripcord.

The primary advantage of using an RSL is a faster reserve parachute deployment compared with using emergency handles alone; after a cut-away, the RSL will usually activate before the reserve deployment ripcord is pulled. However, proper emergency procedures require the reserve ripcord to be pulled in the event that the RSL is disconnected or not functioning correctly. An RSL also offers protection in the event a jumper cuts-away but does not (or can not) reach for the reserve deployment handle.

The RSL can be disengaged by a skydiver in situations where it is desirable to detach the main parachute without deploying the reserve. Examples of such situations may include certain high-wind landings (in case the parachute must be cut away if the skydiver is being dragged across the ground) or when performing canopy formations. The RSL attaches to the risers through a small metal loop that will disconnect when a fabric tab is pulled."

A Reserve Static Line (RSL) will, as you say, deploy virtually automatically when the Main is cut away - the drag of the Main 'chute being discarded pulls on the RSL and deploys the Reserve without the jumper having to do anything else ........ except first cut away the Main.

HOWEVER! If the Main does not deploy at all - as was apparently the case here - and the Main Static Line simply came loose from the Hard Point in the 'plane - whatever the jumper does to discard the Main simply will not work to activate the RSL; the Main is still sitting - unactivated - in the Backpack, just trailing the Static Line which came loose from the 'plane.

The only resort in this situation is to manually deploy the Reserve, and given that these kids (with respect) were apparently jumping from around 1,000 feet and had virtually no experience their chances of doing so quickly enough to survive were very small.

Patrick

Patrick

[JAG]

forgive my ignorance, but why are "POLICE" cadets doing jump training anyway ?....I mean how many people can you extort money from at 10,000 feet ?...

They like to collect macho badges, I've yet to find any other reason!

It also seems that everyone in the army is jump qualified!!

As are all the car park attendants at my local Big C!

There is an immigration policeman at Swampy who wears British Para Wings! I asked him, he got them by doing some jumps with the British on some sort of joint exercise in Malaysia many years ago. (He was a very old immigration policeman - nice chap though.)

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