Fatality. Poland, Jastarnia 2016 - a jump with the tube

Fatality. Poland, Jastarnia 2016 - a jump with the tube

    Dear readers, this is what I gather beneath as working material. If you know something more or you notice something wrong please help me.

Last year in Jastarnia there was a fatal accident in which a tube tangled with the main parachute and then the cut-away procedure with the reserve canopy. Jumper as a result of the hard landing was killed instantly. A very experienced skydiver with achievements of more than 2,100 jumps, participant of the world record in the largest formation head up, forty-four years old, highly respected and well-liked. According to the relation of friends, respect safety rules of skydiving.

•     Date of the event: 26 July 2016
•     Male, 44 years old,
•     9 years in the sport, the number of jumps 2100+
•     PD main canopy Valkyrie 84 WL 2.6
•     Rig: Javelin
•     Reserve: PD Optimum 126
•     Kit was equipped with RSL Skyhook
•     Tube: length of 4 meters, diameter 41 cm.

Description:

Freefly jump thirteen way, with 3 tubes. The brake-off  about 4000 ft. Brake-off of the formation also assumed vertical separation, due to the difficulty of horizontal movement of of skydivers with tubes. The opening of the main canopy occurred at around 3200 - 2600 ft. During the opening of main the tube entangle with twisted lines. Here are some important elements that lead to just such a turn of events. The tube is rather short, which does not run over the canopy. Parachute was very heavily loaded, with my experience too much. Valkyrie 84 WL 2.6 with asymmetrical covering of canopy cells can be very susceptible to line-twist with diving. .This jumper for some time tried to pull the tube out of the main canopy lines. It seems that it took too long but at the moment I have no information what exactly were altitudes of main deployment and cut-away procedure. 
Kit was equipped with a system Skyhook RSL. The Skyhook RSL pulled freebag out of the container, as skydivier fell sideways to the relative wind. As a result, the reserve parachute opened with linetwist. Jumper started the emergency procedure still keeping tube in hand.  

It's hard to explain why he made that critical mistake. Perhaps the circumstance that affects that decision was the location of the drop zone and feel the threat of losing the tube. The same could be explained too long effort to draw the tube from the main, which was bought by this jumper shortly before the fatal jump.I do not have information on emergency procedures training. About such training among very experienced jumpers it is quite touchy. With the license and jumping all over the world you can not clearly determine when is the beginning of the season and therefore when you should refresh your psychomotoric skills. In that situation it could be presumed that it was lack of the emergency drills. Properly performed procedure requires the involvement of both hands. Here with one hand, most likely left the jumper still was holding the tube. The thought of keeping the tube should rather lose in the face of decisions about the cut-away and start psychomotoric reactions. This would be, in my opinion, if jumper had such well trained skills. Providing such a reflex, however, it requires multiple repetitions with engaging the muscles and imagining a state of emergency. In the event that the jumper could take a long time (9 years) of basic training. When it comes to preparing for the first jump course, it could be very interesting witch technique he was trained (one hand, or both hands on cut-away pillow). In the face of life-threatening brain can reach into the firstly tought reactions, which in the state of stress before the first jump are strongly encrypted.

    It is worth mentioning that there is some tacit consent to the treatment experienced skydivers and instructors somewhat over the general safety rules, including regular workout emergency procedure. USPA recommends that at least once a year, each jumper, regardless of experience should get the training in a suspended harness. Most of the skydivers seems, however, to realize that reality a little different from the perfection. This is facilitated by the nature of parachute training in Poland, which is concentrated around only two stages of training process. This is the basic training - that is, to obtain a polish license and the instructor rating course. So between 50 and 500 jump there is a huge gap in which there is no control system of training. What is even worse jumpers are not convinced of the need for such training. If no one is forcing them - as it is in basic training, then only some of them decide for voluntary training and others sneak by organized in the spring safety days.

The decision on holding the tube during the emergency procedure was even worse, that set parachute was equipped with a support system of opening inventory detachable main parachute. After cutting the main canopy parachute entangled with the tube. Jumper again came in strong spin and hit the runway, he died a moment later.

suggested applications

• Jumping with the tube require special preparation.
• The choice of the type and size of the canopy can have a significant influence on the opening of the main parachute if the jumper decides to keep the tube. Heavily loaded parachutes high performance may be severely disrupted durign the opening.
• All jumpers, at least once a year should train in a suspended harness emergency procedure.
• Consider additional training procedures for jumping from objects that jumper perpetuated themselves reject the subject before cut-away.
• In the case of a decision about keeping the tube should consider opening planned higher than normally

For those who do not know how the jump with the tube to present an example below. Obviously this is not the movie of fatality.