Parachute Failure

[suffragette]

A chap in New Zealand loses both parachutes and survives. Both he and one of his fellow jumpers filmed the entire event. Is he the luckiest man alive? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_ar ticle_id=37211&in_page_id=34

[suffragette]

As the film seems somewhat shy and doesn't wish to show itself, may I suggest you type in www.metro.co.uk and watch the events unfurl for yourself. It is quite a heart stopping incident to watch, even when you know the favourable outcome. (Apologies about the film.)

[jno]

yow... here's the film


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles /mos/skydiver.html?in_article_id=435694&in_pag e_id=1990&in_a_source=

[sp1814]

Question:

If the skydiver fell on water, would the impact, at that speed, kill him?

[BillStickers]

I think that he survived because instead of landing on water or hard ground, he managed to land on an eight foot high bramble bush wish cushioned his fall.
Coming down on the sea would indeed have killed him, at least that is what it said on the Channel 4 news yesterday.

[jno]

I think at that speed water is just as 'hard' as land. But he might have survived by going in in a diving position - arms out in front, legs straight, to present as narrow a cross-section as possible. That's why bellyflops hurt more than regular dives: more of you hits more of the water.

[derekpara]

Yes, he was lucky, but you will notice that one of his 'chutes partially deployed (opened), which helped to lower his rate of descent. If he had hit the water I think he would have certainly been killed.
There are other recorded incidents of survival from parachute failure, mainly during WW2. One air crew member jumped over Germany from 15,000ft with his chute on fire and landed in deep snow without serious injury. Another parachutist actually hit an airfield with complete parachute failure from 5000ft and only suffered a broken jaw. !!

Military paras now use reserve 'chutes and what we call 'Roman Candles' are fairly rare.and are mostly caused by a poor exit from the plane. The latest military chutes are designed for low-level jumps (around 300ft) so reserve chutes would be of no use as they wouldn't have time to deploy if anything went wrong with the main.

Remind me to tell you a true story of the first Gurkhas to be detailed for Airborne operations !

[derekpara]

Some sort of acknowledgement/comment would be appreciated, suffragette. It not only encourages people to answer but it is also good manners to say ' Thank You.'