Marine Raider Dies in Airborne Training Accident

Most jump accidents happen in airborne units rather than basic jump school. The injuries and occasionally a death occur because of excessive wind or errors resulting in people landing off the drop zone. Also, a chute malfunction sometimes causes injury or death. In five years in airborne units, we only experienced one jump death. A trooper was strangled on the suspension lines of a cargo chute when he was dragged through it by the wind on the ground.

I’m a former Jumpmaster. The most dangerous thing about Jump School is that you are filling the sky with novice jumpers. On Monday of Jump week you have a few hundred troops exiting an aircraft while in flight for the first time. He died on Tuesday, which would have been either his second or third jump. Jump 3 is the first combat equipment jump, which adds to the complexity quite a bit. While it’s possible that the parachute was improperly rigged or the JM team committed an error or did not properly inspect the jumper or the aircraft, the vast majority of injuries and deaths in static line parachuting are usually due to jumper error- poor static line control, weak exit, or failure to execute emergency procedures in the event of a malfunction It doesn’t have to be your error that kills you. Jumper 1 could have a weak exit or lose static line control, disrupt the timing, and cause Jumper 2 and 3 to have a high altitude collision. Upon exiting the troop door you have the same forward velocity as the aircraft, and begin to fall at the acceleration of gravity. Collisions with other jumpers, the aircraft, or loose equipment could all be fatal. Weak exits can cause twists in the risers or inverted parachutes (I have seen jumpers actually flip through their own risers), which can cause partial malfunctions. With a partial malfunction the jumper may think their parachute is operating properly when in reality they are falling too fast. There is a span of a few seconds for the jumper to execute emergency procedures. This is why Jump School jumps at 1250 feet, as opposed to 800 feet in an airborne unit at 500 feet in combat- it gives novice jumpers more time to react. Finally, novice jumpers are notorious sky sharks. They pull slips/toggles way too soon and for too long, then change their minds constantly. As a result, they are zooming all over the place, which can cause collisions, ‘stealing air’ (collapsing parachutes, and of course entanglements. In other words, while the team at… Read more »