Enthusiast

On 9/22/2021 at 11:38 AM, michaelmullins said:

Nope, only 36 and 41

 

I suggest you find a plane that can be flown to those altitudes that is certified and approved for jump operations aka door off configuration before you start taking money from potential clients.

On 10/27/2021 at 12:47 PM, gowlerk said:

Since we have lost Tom Noonan in a unexpected way during an attempt at a 41,000 ft tandem jump that also included successful sport jumps the discussion in the incidents forum has included talk of whether or not such jumps should even be done. The forum mods have now twice suggested that this discussion should take place in the General Forum. This very high profile incident has many facets worthy of talking about. This topic is meant to be about the wisdom of selling jumps this risky to the general public.

My personal feeling is that there should have been more testing before this attempt. My understanding is that there were test runs, but all at somewhat lower, athough still very high levels. The aircraft owner put a lot of time money and effort into this program and is someone well known for excellence in the quest to go higher and faster than anyone else. Now I am wondering if his program will be able to recover from this setback. I believe that if further attempts are made they should be done with several loads of solo jumpers and an improved supervisory system on board. As I read more about the conditions at this height I am somewhat astounded by the small margin for error in the systems.

Gowlerk- this isn’t something new.  The military has been doing this and testing this since the 1960s.  This is new to the civilian skydiving world due to an ever increasing desire to test limits and the ability for providers to find and provide higher and higher jump platforms.

There are systems and procedures that are tested and proven. The systems and procedures used on this flight were not those that have been tested and proven.  There are literally 1,000s of pages of reference manuals and studies available online for various O2 systems, masks, regulators, bail-out bottles etc. mostly done by the military.  All the equipment Mike uses is military.  He just didn’t know how to use it nor the proper procedures concerning its use.  His staff lacked proper education and experience.  This was an avoidable fatality.  Trust me, I am pissed!  Tom was a great guy.  

On 10/28/2021 at 11:54 AM, JoeWeber said:

My information is that it was a paying passenger who had jumped with Tom previously from a lower, but extreme, altitude. 

I can concur with Joe.  He has correct info.  The passenger has paid for multiple high altitude jumps, including balloon jumps.  I doubt that the passenger or Tom knew that the plane they were in was not certified to do jump operations or to fly with the door off, and they certainly were not told that the O2 systems being used were not designed or certified for the use the seller of the jump used them for.