I don’t mind flying. We’re told it’s a safe form of transport and I believe that. With highly trained pilots and onboard computers ready to deal with any emergency that may arise I reckon we’re probably at more of a risk crossing the road than we are up in the clouds. So, time to sit back and relax.
There are people though, who prefer to add a bit of excitement to their time in the sky, like parachutists for example. They’re not content to just sit there and enjoy the ride, no sir. They prefer to exit the aircraft before it lands, putting their faith in a parachute which is little more than a piece of silk attached to a few strings.
I can’t think of a single inducement that would encourage me to do that. My daughter did a charity jump years ago and I was sick at the thought of it. Falling to Earth at 200 km per hour armed with only a backpack is not my idea of fun.
But there are plenty who enjoy it and they’re even happy to pay for the privilege. There are parachute clubs all over the world to cater for these thrill seekers, including one in Ireland, where people can throw themselves out of a plane at heights of ten to thirteen thousand feet. Enthusiasts will tell you that you haven’t lived until you have enjoyed the thrill of free fall at speed attached to a parachute.
The experts tell us that while skydiving is a lot safer than most people think, it does carry risks and it’s the ‘risk’ bit that sticks in my mind. They also tell us that most skydiving accidents happen with the parachute open, usually due to poor judgment or avoidable risks taken during the landing. Broken legs, sprained ankles, and fractured pelvises are heard of far more than a fall where the parachute is unflyable.
On the rare occasion that a parachute doesn’t open, there is a reserve canopy in place. This backup parachute will deploy if the main parachute doesn’t open. The chances of a parachute not opening are greater than one in 1,000, and the possibility of the reserve also not opening or being unflyable is more than one in a million. OK, the odds are good, but I’m still not convinced.
The experts have some advice too if for any reason, your main parachute doesn’t open or is faulty. Apparently, the thing to remember is to stay calm; the most significant risk to the reserve parachute not saving you, is panic. That may well be, but I can pretty much guarantee if I was hurtling towards the N25 with a nicely folded parachute refusing to get out of its bag there would be lots of panic.
If both parachutes do fail to open, the advice is to spread your body out as wide and horizontal as possible in an X shape; any speed reduction you can cause will help. Then it would help if you started planning the safest possible landing spot. Anything that can absorb the impact will be best, such as snow, tree branches, marshy areas, or a freshly ploughed field, then brace for a strong impact.
There have been some incredible instances of people falling out of airplanes without parachutes and surviving. Alan Magee, an American airman survived a 22,000-foot fall from a damaged B-17 bomber over France in 1943. Thrown clear of the aircraft and rendered unconscious, he fell four miles before crashing through the glass roof of St. Nazaire train station, shattering it and miraculously surviving, but with severe injuries.
On July 6th, 2021, a British soldier miraculously survived a 15,000-foot fall over the skies of Atascadero, California. The British parachutist’s training exercise went awry when his chute failed to properly deploy. He crashed through the roof of a bungalow, fell through the attic, and landed in the kitchen. When he was found, the soldier was conscious and complained of some pain but incredibly wasn’t seriously injured. Thankfully, no one was home at the time.
At 4,000ft, Jordan Hatmaker pulled the string and realised something was very wrong. A series of unfortunate incidents combined to leave her heading for the ground without a parachute. Seconds later, she crash-landed in a field and remembers the blades of grass in her mouth as she prayed out loud and screamed for help. She knew she had broken her back, but it was only three weeks into her hospital stay that she realised the full extent of her injuries.
She had broken several vertebrae, one of which had also crushed her spinal cord. In the operating theatre surgeons discovered she was leaking spinal fluid. In addition, she had hit the ground with her left leg first, causing her tibia to break near the ankle. Two years later, Hatmaker went back to work.
Emma Carey was on a European backpacking holiday when she went on a tandem skydive in Switzerland. When she jumped, she remembers the incredible feeling of being at peace. But the feeling of euphoria was short-lived for the 20-year-old backpacker.
It seems that when the instructor pulled the parachute it got tangled with the emergency chute that had been triggered at the same time. The parachutes didn’t open correctly and got tangled around the instructor’s neck, strangling him until he passed out.
They hit the ground, hard. Emma landed on her stomach and the instructor landed on top of her. She was awake for the entire ordeal with a broken back, a broken pelvis, jaw and teeth. Thankfully she survived and has the date of her accident tattooed on her arm as a reminder that every day is a blessing.
I’ll wait until the plane lands before I get off thank you very much.