Riggers injured in parachute jump
Parachute riggers with the 421st Quartermaster Company suffered a few mishaps yesterday during a training jump according to WFXL;
SPC John Gunn was taken to the Phoebe Sumter Hospital for treatment after injuring his knee while landing on the tarmac.
1st Lt. Alex Francisco hit the power lines and landed in a nearby tree. Sumter County Sheriff Pete Smith says that 1st Lt. Francisco suffered burns to the middle of her body and was life flighted for treatment.
SSG Bridgeman says that the equipment used did not malfunction and that “accidents happen.”
The 421st is an aerial delivery support unit at Fort Valley, Georgia. Training for war is tough.
Category: Military issues
It’s been a bad last 30 days for jumping. Two deaths and multiple serious injuries. Hopefully we can get it fixed.
I’m not a fan of the new chutes. I jumped the T-10C, and -1B. Round always works better than square in my opinion.
In a combat theater of operation…you can die. Training stateside or anywhere in order to get there…you can die. If T-11s were involved again they need to be looked at in depth. Question for you Airborne troops out there. I did some research in response to the recent loss of lives in training using the newer T-11. the T-11 has a slower descent rate and better load capacity but it is non-maneuverable. I do not understand that lack of capability. The MC-6 I read about is quite maneuverable. Why not spend the money, to save lives and issue a maneuverable type of chute to ALL Airborne troops, not just Special Operations?
I’m no expert on parachutes, but when I was in the 82d, they quit using the -1B because it was more maneuverable and because most of the jumps in the 82d were mass tactical jumps, that maneuverability caused more mid-air entanglements and accidents. Paratroopers are more safe when they just comply with the laws of gravity and don’t drive.
Jonn, thank you. Something I didn’t know or consider. Now that I remember seeing plane after plane drop troops in exercises I understand what you mean.
Keep in mind Sparks, What Airborne units do is not sport parachuting. When the 82nd does Mass Tactical Airborne operations large scale, it is 1700 people or more at a time. That means for each pass, depending on the drop zone, you could have 30-100 people in the air, just from your Aircraft. Add to that the fact that each jumper only has a (ideally) one second interval in between them, which is not a lot of room for error for maneuvering away from your fellow jumpers, especially in the dark. Add to THAT the fact that you have follow on aircraft in either offset in an echelon, or in trail 10,000 meters behind the lead, with another pass of jumpers coming and it is controlled chaos. The T-11 steers like the Exxon Valdez, but with that many people in the air, it is a good thing. You don’t have to worry about some sky-shark coming whizzing over at you and slamming into you. Did I mention we do this at night? Did I mention they always seem to like to do this on nights where there is very little Illumination coming from the stars or moon? That is another reason we don’t have maneuverable canopies. As Jonn mentioned, falling with gravity is better than trying to out maneuver it in this case. Add to that, a maneuverable canopy increases your forward speed in relation to the ground. As long as you are going into the wind (feeling it against your face) you are good. It’s when jumpers run with the wind that bad accidents happen. Hitting the ground while running with an 8 knot wind would be the equivalent of jumping from a car at 20 mph. And it doesn’t take much if you are jumping that many people to guarantee someone will have to run with the wind to avoid other jumpers. Also, it takes a LOT of experience to be able to judge the winds at night. And to do it well, you do many daytime Hollywood with a smoke canister on the DZ to let you… Read more »
Slightly OT. In the dark ages we often did mass jumps at Bragg with dignitaries in attendance. Once the planes pass the DZ is eerily quiet til the next echelon comes in. You can hear everything. The COC would spend hours during the hurry up and wait threatening the Troopers with Non Judicial if any of them used anything about approved language in the descent, like: slip left!!!
It never worked. I envisioned the Queen watching stoically as hundreds of Troopers were yelling “Get off my MF’ing chute asshole!!!” and so forth.
And don’t forget the golden rule. Never piss towards the bleachers after you land. Only been holding it in four hours.
Oh yes! I had forgotten that. Collapse chute…pee.
Say John were did you serve in AA.
Was in 1/75th, A (Airborne) 3/5th (in Panama) and 1/325th AIR at Bragg.
Even Special Forces free falling with maneuverable chutes can get killed.
Or maybe it was the Golden Knights?
Anyway, you all might remember umpteen years ago when two free fall paratroopers at Fort Bragg collided in mid air, killing one and causing the other to lose some limbs?
Round will you you down.
Sometimes its bad luck sometimes bad judgment on the jumpers, Jump masters or DZSO. Its sounds like a small D.Z and jumpers that did not know when and were to SLIP AWAY.
Every time I see one of these articles, my respect level for paratroopers, starting with the WWII troops jumping into war zones in Europe, just goes sky high.
Damn, Ex-PH2, every paratrooper’s wet dream: a chick who likes jump stories!
Where were you in ’62?
Ain’t it the truth Poet! Bragg gals didn’t care.
Seriously, Ex-PH2, I do have one jump story that the ladies always liked. You, as a writer should be able to picture this and appreciate it.
We were making a mass night jump on Yamato drop zone at Fort Campbell on a cold winter night back in the early 60’s. It had snowed several inches the day before but the winter storm had passed on through leaving a crystal clear night sky; and to top it all off, a full moon.
Once past the icy blast and a quick check of my canopy I looked around and was absolutely stunned by the beauty of all those floating, slowly descending canopies silhouetted against the snow which was absolutely glowing under the moonlight. They looked like mushrooms pushing up through the snow. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve witnessed in my entire life.
I was so captivated by the panorama that I momentarily forgot to take care of business until I heard a canopy snapping and popping right beneath me. Just as I looked down, my jump boots sank a couple of inches into the other canopy and my chute, robbed of its air by the chute beneath it, began collapsing.
As my chute fell below the edge of the one I was now sitting on, I yelled for the other trooper to pull a hard slip away from mine which he did. I actually was able to then scoot across his canopy and drop off the other side and after a few suspenseful seconds, my canopy reopened and I landed without incident.
There, now you’ve heard a real jump story.
Okay, I’ll give you my jump story.
I used to compete in open jumping at horse shows on other people’s horses. I wanted to put my own horse into it, but the trainer said she wasn’t really ready for it. She was the most economical, accurate jumper I had ever ridden, and I thought she was ready for the bigger fences, so I decided to find out just what she could do.
This particular horse liked to dump me and trot off with her nose and tail in the air, just to torment me, but she was dead serious about her fences.
The schooling ring was up on top of the highest point of land in Fairfax County, VA. It didn’t have lights for night training just yet. One of the other idiots (and we were idiots) and I decided to go up there and do a little schooling over fences… with a flashlight. The sky was cloudy and there was no moon.
The other idiot did a round or two over some low fences while I held the flashlight on them so her horse and she could both see the fence and the ground. Then it came her turn to hold the flash light for me and my ditzy mare.
The other idiot decided to not only raise the fences to 3.5 ft, she also decided at the last moment of approach to turn off the flashlight. It was an in-and-out, a jump-stride-jump combination that requires a trustworthy horse in the best circumstances.
My ditzy mare did not stop and refuse to jump. No, she knew where the fences were, how high they were, the distance between them, and how much clearance she had for both of them and went through that in-and-out combo as if the sun were shining directly overhead.
Yeah, we were two of the biggest idiots on the planet, but I had the best horse on the planet. I cried when I had to sell her.
Well hells-bells, Ex-PH2, here I go and try to woo you with my touchy-feely jump story and you go and top me with a no-shit story that sounds like something a bunch of drunk paratroopers might do.
I guess I’m buying.
Such stories usually being with: “no shit”. But, I’ve starred in that movie. What you described is 100% believable. Except that you left out the epithets that the other Trooper said to you whilst you were walking across his canopy! I bet it started with: “MF”!
Calm down, Poetrooper. I was in high school.
Darlin, I was only 18 myself…
18?
Well, dayum, Poetrooper, where were you when the guy I had a crush on took some other girl to the prom and had to marry her after graduation? (I hope that jackass spent his whole life regretting that he didn’t take me.)
Where were ya?
Pansy’s. I have LOTS of jumps logged from several types of Naval aircraft, and I never ONCE used a parachute.
From a 15 foot hover, or 10 feet / 10 knots, into the water…
…also, hope the injured heal up quickly, especially the 1st Lt. Hitting power lines is scary.
Amen. Burns have a special place in things that scare the crap out of me. Late wife spent month+ in a burn unit (along with Pentagon 9-11 survivors) from pulling a commercial fryer over on her in our restaurant. She never really covered…that was real PTS. Prayers to the 1LT…may she not suffer and have full recovery.
Smacking your knees on tarmac – any hard surface – is no fun.
Electrical burns are something that I don’t wish on (almost) anybody.
A fellow Mormon who served with me in the 101st Airborne in Viet Nam, joined the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Salt Lake City, Utah.
During a jump at Camp Williams, he was headed into some power lines, so he cut away from his chute and broke both legs when he hit the ground.
He and his brother, an outlaw biker and also a Green Beret who served in Viet Nam, are now both deceased from Huntington’s Chorea.
He told me that jumping from a helicopter was easier, but scarier than jumping from an airplane.
I disagree. Hope on the helo and sit on the floor with feet on skids…it goes straight up like an elevator and hovers while you scoot your ass out. You: don’t have to go through hours of foreplay at the BN, Pope and low level over NC with the USAF in the turbulence (and puke running down the aisle); no crowds at the exit and descending; no prop blast; no walking a half mile dragging a chute to turn in and then S&P’s back to BN; jump higher so you have time to look around and enjoy the scenery. POV to/from the DZ. Thus they are know as Hollywood blasts.
He liked the jump, but he didn’t like looking down and thinking about it before he did it.
sj: and all you had to wear was your steel pot and your pistol belt. When I was on battalion staff, every time some battalion officer needed a pay-qualifying jump they’d lay on a Huey and they always had extra space available.
Every time I heard someone yell, “Anybody want a jump?” I’d be ready to go. That was one of the few situations in the Army where volunteering was the right thing to do. And there was nothing scary about jumping from a Huey. It was the static line version of sky-diving, pure fun.
Depends, Poe. A Huey jump kinda sucks when you’re the #6 jumper, the pilot flies a bad track over a small DZ – and #3 jumper goes out over the tree line and everyone thereafter ends up well off the DZ over trees.
Only time I ever made a tree landing. Landing in trees once was more than enough, thanks. (smile)
AKA “Pay Jump” or “Quarterly Dropage”. I’ll confess.
I had a bad Mae West (because of a BAD exit) from a 119 and the reserve didn’t work on jump #2 at Benning and it scared the shit out of me. They jumped us in Red Smoke for wind and 2 guys dragged to death because they could not collapse their canopies. An ambulance carried me to the hosp and I got a “2 salt tablets and drive on Rx”. I was happy because I did not want to be a recycle because I was TDY from the 82nd and no way in hell did I want to lose that awesome assignment. Years later I was found with a bunch of crushed vertebrates.
Took me awhile to regain confidence in chutes. But, the assignments to the 82nd (incl Dom Rep and Nam) will make me smile whilst being planted at Arlington.
Pic Donald Martin from Pico River Ca was killed on 05-03-1971 on a parachute drop from a c-141 while serving in hhb 1/320th arty at ft bragg nc. Forever young, rip bro
Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane…..
SMH
There is no such thing as a “perfectly good airplane”.
Besides, if you jump you get to break one of the immutable rules of flying – “takeoffs and landing have to match”.
Do a tandem jump. Actually do two. You may not remember much from the first one. The second one is really great. And go high, the freefall is a blast – flips and turns and spins, it’s all good.
Dude. You have never seen a C-119 or a C-124.
Or a C-123 – “two turnin’ plus two burnin'”.
So loud – and shaking so hard – on takeoff that you can’t hear yourself think and your teeth vibrate in their sockets. (smile)
Oh yes. Forgot that experience. No prop blast deflectors I recall? Damn, we’re geezers.
Can’t recall for sure about the prop blast deflector, but I think you’re right. And that safety strap vice a door during takeoffs on the fuselage door you would exit later was also a nice touch. (smile)
As for getting old: yeah, it sucks – but so far it still beats the alternative, amigo. It beats the alternative.
I was a Marine (Redeye/Stinger Gunner)from 1981-through 1991, and always felt an air of superiority when doing any training with Army air defense units. That all changed during Solid Shield 88 (or maybe 89) when Camp Lejeune was over run by the 82nd Airborne. I was able to watch those guys jumping over the Lejeune LZ’s with a sense of awe, and realized that those paratroopers were as Hard Core as we were.