Is skydiving really safe?

[Backintothesky 0]

Exactly, a friend recently died from a completely unexpected brain aneurysm just going about her daily life. She was 29.

Live as much as you can cos death's coming for you either way.

rjblake

Love the outlook! There are those that say you only live once; but I'd disagree - you only die once! You get to live every day have no clue if some evil disease is gonna nail you, some fucktard on the highway is gonna wipe me off my bike, the building is gonna collapse or a zombie apocalypse is gonna happen. As many have said, no its not safe, but then again nothing is - so live your life, enjoy and treat others with respect - even if they are a zombie fucktard reaper! When I arrive at my destination one day, I know I'll arrive having lived my life to the max

[manseman 0]

While the statistics might not be terribly useful to decide if your next jump is going to be worth the risk or not, they're pretty much the only way to discover systematic changes in the sport as a while. The relationship between the number of jumps ending in fatalities/injuries and total jumps made will definitely say something about the direction the sport is heading in terms of safety.

And while jump number n+1 isn't automatically more dangerous than jump number n, making two jumps certainly puts you in greater risk of getting hurt or killed than just making one. If reality was oversimplified to the point where getting killed on each individual jump is actually 1/133333, then about 7% of the people trying to make 10000 jumps would get killed somewhere between their first and their 10000:th jump.

[FreefallingCari 0]

Thanks all for the kind words!

Skydiver Survivor; Battling Breast Cancer one jump at a time. DX June 19th 2014
I have been jumping since October 5th 2013.
https://pinkribbonskydiver.wordpress.com/

[champu 1]

Baksteen

It just isn't that easy.

Yours is a pretty good summary on the idiocy of trying to make predictions based on statistics of something as general as "making a skydive."

Interestingly, as an American, there's a 2.6% chance that I live in New York City. It's just a roll of the dice.

[airtwardo 6]

Quote

Interestingly, as an American, there's a 2.6% chance that I live in New York City. It's just a roll of the dice.

Wait....what??

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

[Krip 2]

airtwardo

Quote

Interestingly, as an American, there's a 2.6% chance that I live in New York City. It's just a roll of the dice.

Wait....what??

Yep

I read it on the internet, so it has to be true.

One Jump Wonder

[champu 1]

The population of New York City is around 2.6% of the population of the United States as a whole. The joke is that one would conclude that by selecting me (or just anyone in the US) there's a 2.6% chance they select a New Yorker.

[Krip 2]

champu

The population of New York City is around 2.6% of the population of the United States as a whole. The joke is that one would conclude that by selecting me (or just anyone in the US) there's a 2.6% chance they select a New Yorker.

We have a winner.

I was born and raised in da bronx. Left in 1966 for god and country and never looked back. Great place to grow up and be from.
I'm guessing the probability of running into a X New Yorker is a lot greater than 2.6 %

Note to self: Buy more aluminum foil, and clean up my dizzy profile.

One Jump Wonder

[wmw999 2,116]

My father spent a year or so growing up in Brooklyn. He used to joke that a quarter of America had lived in Brooklyn at one time or another.

And to add: no, skydiving is not safe. One can analyze, understand and mitigate some of the risks, but enough of them cannot be eliminated to call it safe.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[jimmytavino 16]

by allll the statistics, percentages, decimals and critiques of anyone who posted such things...

Skydiving IS Safe....
ONLY...
It's Not " REALLY " Safe .it's only partly safe.
and THAT's good enough for me !!!!
jmy

[wmw999 2,116]

Works for me, too

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[champu 1]

Krip

I was born and raised in da bronx. Left in 1966 for god and country and never looked back. Great place to grow up and be from.
I'm guessing the probability of running into a X New Yorker is a lot greater than 2.6 %

Assuming that anyone has ever moved away from NYC and survived (a fair assumption I'd say, as you've just stated you have) then yes, the odds that an American choosen at random is either a New Yorker or ex-New Yorker is greater than the odds that they are strictly a current New Yorker.

The probability of running into an ex-New Yorker as an ex-New Yorker is even greater still, as there's no reason to believe that ex-New Yorkers are distributed evenly and independently amongst the population across the United States.

Similarly, if you have been injured skydiving, I'd assert you have a higher probability of knowing someone else who has also been injured or who has been killed skydiving than someone who has not been injured skydiving. (I'll just step back now and watch as people argue over why they think I think that would be the case )

[Krip 2]

GLIDEANGLE

I would argue that no matter how well you do the stats on the fatalities.... you will still VASTLY underestimate the real risk because you omit injuries.

Injury is common in skydiving and ranges from a bruise requiring an ice pack, to quadriplegia requiring an electric wheelchair and a ventilator! To ignore injury is to ignore a HUGE part of the risk that we face.

Good for you Mr Glideangle

The sorry thing about the bean count is when you ask people in the industry and some skysnobs why they don't count those type of injuries.

They respond in public because they don't want to.

They know who they are, and think very highly of themselves.

One Jump Wonder