One tandem fatality wasn't instructor error

[artard 0]

In the letters section of this month's Parachutist, Bill Morrissey says:

"[S]ize and strength were not a factor in any of the over 100 deaths in a strange variety of tandem fatalities. Unfortunately, those deaths have all, except one, been attributed to instructor error."

Can someone tell me the details or point me to the incident thread for this fatality, and is this a widely-accepted statistic, that only one tandem fatality in history has not been caused by instructor error?

http://www.mixcloud.com/prajna
http://vimeo.com/avidya

[NWFlyer 2]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3474564

Could be that one. It was on a tandem jump; instructor died, student was fine.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[stratostar 5]

I'm thinking this one: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1716661;search_string=sean%20crossman;#1716661

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[grimmie 177]

Wasn't there a reserve canopy failure in two seperate incidents?

[AHoyThere 0]

If I recall correctly, a tandem pair fatality occurred in 1996 when during a normal main canopy deployment, a riser failure on the RSL side caused a main/reserve entanglement.

Quote

Former Forest City resident Ronald E. Green, 54, of Toltec, Ariz.,
died Tuesday (June 18, 1996) at the Cedar Valley Skydiving Center
near Salt Lake City, Utah.

Green was well known in the area for his exhibition sky
dives. He originated Forest City Skydivers Club and went on to
become a nationally renowned sky diver, making more than 13,400
sky dives in his career.

He was an alternate on the USA team for style and accuracy.
Green was a tandemmaster and instructor, a senior rigger and
a commercial pilot. He was featured several times in skydiving
magazines and was the subject of the cover photo of the ParaGear
catalog for 199596.

[grimmie 177]

Ron went in with Melanie Colby. She was getting her rating. ron was the passenger. The drougue half hitched. They were on the high speed jump. They handles were pulled out of sequence. They impacted with a partially inflated main, reserve mess.

Ron was a friend of mine.
Melanie was one of my dearest friends. I gave the eulogy at her funeral.

[bclark 0]

Melanie Colby taught my first jump course at Cedar Valley, UT. (Where this incident occurred.) My recollection of the events matches yours. This was the "first" skydiving accident I was exposed to in my career.

I also have heard of the riser failure incident. But it was not this one.

[dorbie 0]

Many incidents have multiple causes. Somewhere along the way a TI may not have acted perfectly but in many incidents you can eliminate any of several factors and it would have prevented a fatality.

Consider the tandem reserve entanglement- skyhook incident.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3510835;#3510835
Was it caused by a faulty altimeter, TI altitude awareness, or skyhook system design?

Is it reasonable to single out the TI when you consider his altimeter was probably faulty and the Colin's lanyard chopped just one main riser when the reserve started to deploy?

I think attributing 99% of fatalities to TI error risks giving a misleading impression of the safety of this equipment and the true causes of incidents.

[Trae 1]

innreply to "Is it reasonable to single out the TI when you consider his altimeter was probably faulty and the Colin's lanyard chopped just one main riser when the reserve started to deploy?

I think attributing 99% of fatalities to TI error risks giving a misleading impression of the safety of this equipment and the true causes of incidents. "
..............................................


Do modern TM's have to prove they can handle complicated malfunctions ? Is it reasonable to regularly test TM's perhaps by passing a simulator test ?

Its one thing to ensure TM's are up to the job.
Its another to ensure that Tandem Operators create the environment where TM's can do their job properly.
Been hearing a lot of talk about TM's being mistreated by their non-skydiving employers.

Whuffo's owning/running tandem factories.
Got a bad feeling that's not good for our sport.