Amazing: Skydivers rescue unconscious colleague, captured on video

[Panache]

Skydiver knocked unconscious by accidental blow to the head is rescued in freefall by fellow skydivers... the drama all captured by helmet-camera.

http://youtu.be/tZHag3DBTaA

One diver, named James Lee, was knocked out by a collision with another diver. His chute had to be deployed by hand (pull the ripcord, you know), so with Lee unconscious, that chute wasn't a life-saver. It was just deadweight on his back.

The other divers realize something's gone very wrong and free-glide over to him, to pull his ripcord themselves.

The video isn't really more than you might imagine-- the other divers glide over to him to pull his parachute. Yet, still compelling, as they hand-signal each other to coordinate the rescue. Apparently they had to get his body into safe orientation for deployment of the parachute (head up, feet down) and then pull the cord.

The most important thing that happened can't be captured by video: the other divers' internal realization that their unconscious friend was falling like a rag doll, not like a conscious man.

And the rescue maneuver was itself dangerous: as the knockout demonstrates, you don't want to collide with heavy bodies in freefall.

The unconscious diver did wake up from his knockout... as he approached the earth, parachute deployed.

[NIN]

Skydiver knocked unconscious by accidental blow to the head is rescued in freefall by fellow skydivers... the drama all captured by helmet-camera.

http://youtu.be/tZHag3DBTaA

Couple points here.

Dude was lucky he came-to under canopy.  I recall reading he was jumping something like an XF2 119, which is a 119 sq ft main.  Not as small as some of the pocket-rockets out there, but small enough that his wing loading would be quite high and consequently his forward speed, even with the brakes stowed, quite high.  High enough that a landing while unconscious would probably be fatal.  (this, kids, is part of the reason I still jump a fairly good sized parachute, and haven't downsized into something too small)

Dude was lucky he didn't wind up on his back.  It is very easy for an unconscious jumper to wind up on his back. If that happens, your body will bend in the  middle, and butt first you're going to be accelerating away from everybody.  Fast enough that the "catch your buddy and dump him out" stunt probably wouldn't have happened. With an automatic opener, around 750-800 ft it would have fired his reserve pilot chute and (probably) saved him.  Then again, he might have then been under a similarly sized reserve parachute, very low, very fast. See above about survivable landings.

As an AFF instructor (like the guy on the right who ultimately deployed for him), I'm trained to deal with students who have bad body position in freefall and wind up on spinning, or on their back, or on their back and spinning.  Someplace there is a photo from my instructor course evaluation jumps of me pulling a pretty sweet roll-over on the evaluator.   

A big concern (valid, IMHO) is that untrained folks could get fixated on trying to save their buddy and wind up getting sucked down into the basement and can't save themselves.  I'm trained to chase a student to my deployment hard-deck of 2,000 ft AGL.  I lose a guy at deployment time (5,500), I have between 15 and 20 seconds to get him back on his belly and deployed before its my turn to save my own misbegotten life.

(Somewhat unrelated side note: during the AFF instructor course the candidates always wind up "in the basement", that is, right above the hard deck.  If you're not comfortable with being down and dirty, you're not cut out to be an instructor, I guess.  We had to simulate deploying the student's main parachute by a certain altitude.  The evaluators always go brain-dead at pull time, so at 5,500 ft, if when they don't signal deployment, you have to go thru this 8-second long sequence: 1- Signal check altitude. 2. Wait.  3 - Signal pull.  4. Wait. 5, 6, 7 -  Put their right hand on the main deployment handle (2 tries, 2-3 seconds). 8 - Deploy for them. So you start this whole thing as you're blowing thru 5,500 ft, and in theory you've got them deployed above 3,500 ft.  During the course, however, the evaluator will wait for you to go thru the entire bottom end sequence and then give his "evaluator wave off" and actually deploy his main, probably around 3,000 ft. If you're on the reserve side at deployment time, you have to ride thru the evaluator's deployment, and then gain sufficient separation from the student, about 200 ft horizontally, in about 5 seconds, and deploy above 2,000 ft AGL.  Don't ride thru the deployment? Automatic fail.  Don't gain sufficient separation? Automatic fail.  Bust your hard deck? Automatic fail.   I swear I spent the entire instructor course in the basement. I always threw out my pilot chute before 2,000 ft, but my main was not exactly *quick* about deployment.  There were plenty of times that my digital altimeter told me my deployment was at 1,500 - 1,200 ft (the altitude it finally sensed that I'd stopped freefalling at). At least twice I was so low that I looked over my shoulder during my deployment to be sure my AAD didn't deploy my reserve at the same time)



 

[Spaceman3750]

Skydiver knocked unconscious by accidental blow to the head is rescued in freefall by fellow skydivers... the drama all captured by helmet-camera.

http://youtu.be/tZHag3DBTaA

Couple points here.

Dude was lucky he came-to under canopy.  I recall reading he was jumping something like an XF2 119, which is a 119 sq ft main.  Not as small as some of the pocket-rockets out there, but small enough that his wing loading would be quite high and consequently his forward speed, even with the brakes stowed, quite high.  High enough that a landing while unconscious would probably be fatal.  (this, kids, is part of the reason I still jump a fairly good sized parachute, and haven't downsized into something too small)

Dude was lucky he didn't wind up on his back.  It is very easy for an unconscious jumper to wind up on his back. If that happens, your body will bend in the  middle, and butt first you're going to be accelerating away from everybody.  Fast enough that the "catch your buddy and dump him out" stunt probably wouldn't have happened. With an automatic opener, around 750-800 ft it would have fired his reserve pilot chute and (probably) saved him.  Then again, he might have then been under a similarly sized reserve parachute, very low, very fast. See above about survivable landings.

As an AFF instructor (like the guy on the right who ultimately deployed for him), I'm trained to deal with students who have bad body position in freefall and wind up on spinning, or on their back, or on their back and spinning.  Someplace there is a photo from my instructor course evaluation jumps of me pulling a pretty sweet roll-over on the evaluator.   

A big concern (valid, IMHO) is that untrained folks could get fixated on trying to save their buddy and wind up getting sucked down into the basement and can't save themselves.  I'm trained to chase a student to my deployment hard-deck of 2,000 ft AGL.  I lose a guy at deployment time (5,500), I have between 15 and 20 seconds to get him back on his belly and deployed before its my turn to save my own misbegotten life.

(Somewhat unrelated side note: during the AFF instructor course the candidates always wind up "in the basement", that is, right above the hard deck.  If you're not comfortable with being down and dirty, you're not cut out to be an instructor, I guess.  We had to simulate deploying the student's main parachute by a certain altitude.  The evaluators always go brain-dead at pull time, so at 5,500 ft, if when they don't signal deployment, you have to go thru this 8-second long sequence: 1- Signal check altitude. 2. Wait.  3 - Signal pull.  4. Wait. 5, 6, 7 -  Put their right hand on the main deployment handle (2 tries, 2-3 seconds). 8 - Deploy for them. So you start this whole thing as you're blowing thru 5,500 ft, and in theory you've got them deployed above 3,500 ft.  During the course, however, the evaluator will wait for you to go thru the entire bottom end sequence and then give his "evaluator wave off" and actually deploy his main, probably around 3,000 ft. If you're on the reserve side at deployment time, you have to ride thru the evaluator's deployment, and then gain sufficient separation from the student, about 200 ft horizontally, in about 5 seconds, and deploy above 2,000 ft AGL.  Don't ride thru the deployment? Automatic fail.  Don't gain sufficient separation? Automatic fail.  Bust your hard deck? Automatic fail.   I swear I spent the entire instructor course in the basement. I always threw out my pilot chute before 2,000 ft, but my main was not exactly *quick* about deployment.  There were plenty of times that my digital altimeter told me my deployment was at 1,500 - 1,200 ft (the altitude it finally sensed that I'd stopped freefalling at). At least twice I was so low that I looked over my shoulder during my deployment to be sure my AAD didn't deploy my reserve at the same time)

Would an AAD have helped this guy? I don't skydive but I've done a bit of research in the past, can a reserve still be useful if the jumper is in an uncontrolled fall like this guy was or would it even fully deploy?

[NIN]

It would have fired.  Would the reserve have opened?  Unknown.  For all the reasons you mentioned.