Reserve temporary entanglement with reserve bridle (?) incident

[pchapman 261]

I'm posting this just as a link to a thread in Bonfire, called Twisted reserve... video (DeLand). The incident shown on YouTube is fairly significant and so I thought it deserves a at least a link from Gear and Rigging. (If not in Incidents, but it has now been some months since the event.)

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4226746;

[holie 0]

a lot of blah blah in the bonfire thread.

Therefor some pics extracted from the video here ...

[theonlyski 3]

I commented on the post from BSM about this, that _really_ doesn't look like a skyhook activation. He goes from being in a sitting position, back to belly, THEN his reserve comes out.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[Hellis 0]

Am I the only one thinking of a reserve with a tailpocket and "freechute" that you freepack in to the container?

Would it be possible? There would have to be some modifications to both reserve and rig.
Riggers and others with more knowledge than me, what do you think?

[Remster 24]

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Am I the only one thinking of a reserve with a tailpocket and "freechute" that you freepack in to the container?

Would it be possible? There would have to be some modifications to both reserve and rig.
Riggers and others with more knowledge than me, what do you think?

What do yo mean freechute? You mean a PC? What would it be pulling on if you have a tail pocket?

Remster

[Hellis 0]

Yes, some kind of bridleattachment that lets go at linestretch I guess.

[Remster 24]

I'm not sure how this would have helped in a case like this since the entanglement happened at some time during the deployment, as apposed to the bag and bridle getting caught after....

Remster

[KellyF 16]

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I commented on the post from BSM about this, that _really_ doesn't look like a skyhook activation. He goes from being in a sitting position, back to belly, THEN his reserve comes out.

I spent some time on the phone with the jumper a couple weeks back, and he says he has a shot from his Contour camera that got knocked off his helmet, that shows the red lanyard still attached to the hook at linestretch. It seems that the lanyard broke after the bag couldn't be pulled off the reserve.

[kruse 0]

Looks to me that his RSL was misrouted under his reserve risers. When a person simulates a Skyhook/RSL misroute deployment on the "table" the dangers become clear. I've been warning about this for years, but I guess it will take a fatality to fix the problem (if the cause is discovered).
The fix? I have proposed a simple Tyvek warning label Sewn on the reserve risers showing correct AND incorrect routing. The label could be sewn on all existing Skyhook equipped rigs in the field.
What do you think Kelly?

[sundevil777 93]

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I commented on the post from BSM about this, that _really_ doesn't look like a skyhook activation. He goes from being in a sitting position, back to belly, THEN his reserve comes out.

I spent some time on the phone with the jumper a couple weeks back, and he says he has a shot from his Contour camera that got knocked off his helmet, that shows the red lanyard still attached to the hook at linestretch. It seems that the lanyard broke after the bag couldn't be pulled off the reserve.

Do you have any more insight on how/if the bridle might have gotten under the freebag? Since the contour camera was knocked off, perhaps the interaction of the camera and bridle/bag was involved in the strange deployment.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[riggerrob 558]

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... Do you have any more insight on how/if the bridle might have gotten under the freebag? ...

"

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After a reserve has been closed, there a dozen different ways (for well-meaning, but poorly-informed people) to miss-route RSLs.

[Bertt 0]

Could you post a picture of that proposed label?

You don't have to outrun the bear.

[KellyF 16]

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Looks to me that his RSL was misrouted under his reserve risers. When a person simulates a Skyhook/RSL misroute deployment on the "table" the dangers become clear. I've been warning about this for years, but I guess it will take a fatality to fix the problem (if the cause is discovered).

I think that is a definite possibility, but I don't think it was the cause in this case. Morten is a 26 year veteran of the sport and has/does work for some of the manufacturers in DeLand. He told me specifically that the RSL was routed properly, and I see no reason not to believe him.

As far as the interaction with the camera, I'm not clear on how or where it was mounted, but I've had a theory about the freebag getting pulled between the jumpers' right shoulder and head, possibly getting hung up for a moment, leading to the breakage of the red lanyard. In Morten's case, he says the lanyard didn't break until the reserve was at linestretch, so the only thing I can think of is there was some sort of rebound when the reserve "broke free" of a restriction.

[theonlyski 3]

Just curious, what's the breaking strenth of the red lanyard?

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[skydiverek 54]

The red lanyard breaks at about 325 lbs (for a reason - read the below linked posts).

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=lanyard+lbs+skyhook&search_type=AND&search_fields=sb&search_time=&search_user_username=billbooth&sb=score&mh=50

Also:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=131644;

Isn't it possible that the freebag bridle was wrapped around reserve lines during the reserve packjob, thus choking it?

I think that what happened was:
1. Skyhook worked correctly - it pulled the reserve to line stretch
2. The freebag could not be pulled off the reserve for some reason
3. The force reached 325 lbs and the red Skyhook lanyard broke (as designed)
4. The main canopy then departed, leaving the reserve deployment task to the reserve PC
5. The angle off reserve PC pull has changed, and it managed to pull the freebag off the reserve.

Any thoughts?

[Deyan 31]

What about this one.

The jumper is spinning on his back , right?! So what if he tumbles trough the bridle,or catches the reserve PC with, leg, arm whatever, or not even that. The bridle wraps around a flap. Just for a split second. But the jumper is still spining and since the pin is out, what is holding the freebag in the rig?! Only the tightness of the reserve, right?! So It is possible that in that kind of malfunction you can have 5-6 G's, which I think is enough to get that freebag out of the rig even without any pulling from the Skyhook or from the reserve PC. At that point the jammed bridle,Reserve PC or whatever held the whole system brake lose and the race between the freebag and the rest of the mess started. Because the reserve PC at that point was under the freebag it wrapped around the lines. Then the red lanyard broke , and the rest we saw in the video.

Just a thought

"My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen