Why Parachutists Die

[howardwhite 4]

That's the title of a PhD dissertation by Anton Westman.
You can read about it here.
And you can download the full text from this link.

HW

[JerryBaumchen 1,048]

Hi howard,

Here is the scary part:

Some technological, training and regulatory interventions are suggested to increase safety.

Looks like he wants the Swedish gov't getting into things.

JerryBaumchen

[erdnarob 1]

A parachutist dies like anybody else on the surface of the Earth does. Back to serious thing, he will for many reasons:
1) unluckiness
2) a series of minor bugs leading to a big problem
3) lack of preparation
4) bad attitude toward safety
5) not knowledgeable about equipment
6) not knowledgeable about techniques to be used
7) because of the carelessness of others
8) ignoring his/her limit
9) health problem
10) airplane or/and pilot problem
11) no respect for the weather
12) landing at the wrong place
13) freefall mid air collision
14) collision under canopy
any other suggestion?

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[fasted3 0]

Brain fart

But what do I know?

[howardwhite 4]

Quote

Looks like he wants the Swedish gov't getting into things.

I saw that in the summary, but I also scanned the document for support of this statement, and didn't really find any.
He notes "The quality of the Swedish data derives from the fact that the Swedish Civil Aviation Authority has delegated regulation of skydiving sporting activities in the country to the SFF. As the sole superintendent of Swedish skydiving, the SFF maintains a central registry of participants and activity, and collects data on incidents including injuries through a compulsory reporting system. Given the practical difficulties in practicing civilian sport parachuting from aircraft over Sweden without the knowledge and approval of the SFF, its skydiving database may be among the best available for research on any sport or recreational activity."

In other words, the Swedish counterpart of USPA regulates skydiving, and he seems more than content with that. I like this quote:

Quote

To effectively tackle these risks, preferably with minimal impact on recreational value, where and how should interventions be implemented? It has been a joke on some Swedish national skydiving safety meetings, overheard by the author, that “something needs to be forbidden”. Surely, national rules and regulations have their place - Sweden’s by international comparison low number of hook turn deaths may be an effect of SFF regulations regarding experience level and wing loading. But the study V narratives point to local drop zone culture rather than the formally “almighty” SFF as having the true power over Swedish skydiving safety

Anyway, the dissertation is worth reading in full

HW

[antonwestman 0]

Dear Howard and Jerry,

I was flattered to see that you found it worthwhile to discuss my PhD dissertation in this Forum. Howard is right in that I am not advocating a hostile takeover by the government of the sport. A regulation may be a local dz rule as well, perhaps I should have clarified that.

I am happy to see that Howard noticed my thoughts on recreational value. Though this may be obvious to participants, it may not be to others. If you have the time, please read my overall discussion, in which I write:

The optimal strategy for prevention of injuries in a recreational activity is one that lowers the risk of injury while preserving recreational value. In fact, if it would be possible in a recreational activity to implement an effective strategy for prevention of injuries that increases recreational value, it would be desirable.

I try to summarize this thought in my conclusions as: More safe more fun. Extrapolated to society at large, this means that I think that injury prevention and traumatology should be made more fun, more playful, or something like that. I know this sounds terribly silly, especially in an academic setting, but I think that one reason why some of the safety measures that society has tried to implement, for instance in road traffic, has met so much resistance is that they are, well, boring. If a central government commands its subjects to do something for their own safety, and thus for their own health and well-being, and then needs a police force to, ultimately at gunpoint, coerce them into actually doing it, it all seems quite strange to me.

Injury prevention and traumatology, in society at large or at skydiving drop zones, may face some new difficulties in trying to come up with safety measures that are fun, but it is my hope that it would increase acceptance and compliance, and thus lead towards the goal for us doctors, to keep people healthy. As a citizen or local jumper, I also think I might become happier if the authorities paid some attention to what makes me happy.

With Best Regards,

Anton Westman, D474 Sweden.

[SkyBastard 0]

that made me laugh more than it should have

Dude #320
"Superstitious" is just a polite way of saying "incredibly fucking stupid".
DONK!

[katecooper 0]

I love the "how you can die BASE jumping" flow charts. Very true, and every person should study them before exiting from a fixed object.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing your work. Tilykke paa Fredag med din papir!

kate

[jclalor 12]

A few months back we had 3 students from Stanford come out to our DZ as part of thier research on extreme sports and why people do them. After spending all morning explaining to them that skydiving does have it's risk, it is still a fairly safe and not suicidal a sport. They were so convinced it was safe and not crazy they were going to do tanderms that day.

Then they had the horrific experience of watching a jumper die 100 yards from them.

No tandems for them.

[Andy9o8 0]

Quote

A few months back we had 3 students from Stanford come out to our DZ as part of thier research on extreme sports and why people do them. After spending all morning explaining to them that skydiving does have it's risk, it is still a fairly safe and not suicidal a sport. They were so convinced it was safe and not crazy they were going to do tanderms that day.

Then they had the horrific experience of watching a jumper die 100 yards from them.

No tandems for them.

That's why I've never felt that bringing one's whuffo parents to the DZ, as a way to reassure them that your skydiving is ok, is necessarily a good idea - because a serious injury or fatality can happen at any DZ at any time; and if it happens when they're there, so much for Plan A.

[livendive 8]

Typically because they impact something harder than they should. Alternately because something impacts them harder than it should.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[rehmwa 2]

Why Parachutists Die

I have the answer

Crappy articles
The same old letters month after month
Average pictures
Too many pictures of people sticking out their tongues
Preachy editorials, or even worse, trite/contentless ones
Cheerleading, "Yay me" notes
uninspired advertising, except for that guy that sells guns (he's great)
the pricetag

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[stoneycase 0]

Quote

Dear Howard and Jerry,

The optimal strategy for prevention of injuries in a recreational activity is one that lowers the risk of injury while preserving recreational value. In fact, if it would be possible in a recreational activity to implement an effective strategy for prevention of injuries that increases recreational value, it would be desirable.

I try to summarize this thought in my conclusions as: More safe more fun.

So you've probably already read Bill Booth. IIRC, Bill has a "general"thought regarding increases in safety in skydiving, over time, and the relationship of safety increase to fatalities (accidents, w/e). That thought is something like, "regardless of how safe it is made, people will still push it and therefore get burned He's also, again IIRC, got something on the whole increases in safety create false-senses of security, again causing fatalities (accidents, w/e)" At any rate, Bill's posts here speak for themselves.

Quote

As a citizen or local jumper, I also think I might become happier if the authorities paid some attention to what makes me happy.

Yup, definitely not American! Authorities making citizens happy?! I'm fairly certain that is not the purpose of authority!

Does whisky count as beer? - Homer
There's no justice like angry mob justice. - Skinner
Be careful. There's a limited future in low pulls - JohnMitchell

[AFFI 0]

Why Parachutists Die?

I have the answer -

Lack of oxygen to the brain...

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[airtwardo 6]

Quote

Why Parachutists Die?

I have the answer -

Lack of oxygen to the brain...

Comes from standing downwind of the foam pit.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[cdhezel 0]

in an attempt to acheive an old(er) age !?!

When I go, I want to pass away in my sleep, just like my dear old Grandmother, NOT screaming like the passengers in the car she was driving.

[Vanderhoof1 0]

To borrow an old Air Force term -
"ground clobber".

[rivetgeek 0]

Why Parachutists Die?


Gravity.

~Bones Knit, blood clots, glory is forever, and chicks dig scars.~

[popsjumper 2]

Had I known nothing of you, this statement,

"If a central government commands its subjects to do something for their own safety, and thus for their own health and well-being, and then needs a police force to, ultimately at gunpoint, coerce them into actually doing it, it all seems quite strange to me."

...would have told me immediately that you were not American.

Unfortunately, we as Americans have to live with that here. I would think that your country is much better than this in that respect.

An additional thought...I hope I'm not hijacking the thread with this:
Skydiving in the USA is currently "self-regulated" for the most part. With more an more public exposure, I believe that we will soon catch the eye of legislative bodies who will write their own rules for us...to our detriment.

"Drop that canopy, boy, and put your hands in the air or I'll blow your brains out."
I'm not sure if I'm being facetious or not.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Pulse 0]

Who was this written for?

Seems like a presentation on what fliers have always known.

"Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled."

[BlindBrick 0]

Quote

Why Parachutists Die?

I have the answer -

Lack of oxygen to the brain...

Well if you bounce really, really well, it could be due to actual physical destruction fo the brain.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[pinkfairy 0]

I thought most of them died of age and lifestyle related illnesses, like the rest of the population.

They have kids, stop jumping, get fat and stop excercicing. And then they grow old.

I don't have the statistics, but the number of skydiving deaths every year compared to the total number of skydivers don't add up to "hitting something hard" as the main cause of death for parachutists.

I'm not saying that skydiving is safe, but it's not what kills most skydivers.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[DrewEckhardt 0]

Quote

I thought most of them died of age and lifestyle related illnesses, like the rest of the population.

1 in 100 may be a better extrapolation for people actually in the sport for 10 years, and 1 in 25 for long-timers assuming only average levels of testosterone poisoning.

With higher levels of testosterone poisoning your chances go down. I knew six guys I figured were going to die. Two died running into something solid. Four lived but got close - one cleaned up and got conservative after a heart attack on the plane aged 20 something from too much cocaine; one managed to survive at least an object strike BASE jumping plus at least one hospital stay skydiving (can't remember if I visited once or twice) before getting tossed out of a DZ for being too stupid; one got more conservative after a run in with a wall BASE jumping and broken leg skydiving; and one seemed to be acting smarter after an epic low pull where he got open far enough that only the leg landing on the runway broke (although from a plane it was a BASE canopy, so we're talking a few hundred feet).

The bigger concern might be broken bones. Extrapolating from

The epidemiology of skydiving injuries: World freefall convention, 2000–2001
Journal of Emergency Medicine, Volume 28, Issue 1, Pages 63-68
T.Barrows, T.Mills, S.Kassing

A 1500 jump career gets you a 60% chance for an emergency room visit and about 1 in 4 for a hospital stay.

Broken legs can cost $40,000 which will bankrupt many people, especially without health insurance, and perhaps without disability insurance.

[timmyfitz 0]

Quote

I thought most of them died of age and lifestyle related illnesses, like the rest of the population.

They have kids, stop jumping, get fat and stop excercicing. And then they grow old.

I don't have the statistics, but the number of skydiving deaths every year compared to the total number of skydivers don't add up to "hitting something hard" as the main cause of death for parachutists.

I'm not saying that skydiving is safe, but it's not what kills most skydivers.

I think you missed something. The question being ask is the ones that do die, how does it happen and for what reason?

Read the link in the original post.

[pinkfairy 0]

I did.

I read both the original post and the linked article,

but I still believe that what kills most skydivers is old age.

I also think that the winner effect goes a long way to explain risky behavior in skydiving, and why women tend to be more conservative than men.

Study on how the winner effect affects stock traders:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414174855.htm

Rising levels of testosterone following a victory causes the winner to take increased risks, both in humans and in animals, which increases the chances of another victory and of negative effects, such as predation, loss on the stock market, and hooking in.


Take care.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?