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Old 25th Feb 2024, 16:19
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DownWest
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: France
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Another old one:
I was looking at the DH Rapide that we aquired in the 70s and saw some repaired damage to the horizontal tailplane. Scanning through the log books, it seems that a similar event, but not fatal. Rang a bell, as I had read about it some time before in a newspaper
Used by the army for jumps, a parachute had deployed by the door, caught on the tailplane and left the jumper trailing behind the a/c. The jumpmaster got the remaining jumpers to trail him on a load of joined up static lines back to the casualty, cut him loose and they went down on one. He got a GM for the effort.
To add, the other Rapide that we bought as scrap for engines etc had a jumper from a higher a/c hit from above and wedged in the fuselarge up to his waist. Luckily his chute had not deployed. He was not much injured (thin ply & fabric..) so stayed there until they landed. Again, saw the damage and checked the books.

Bit surprised that the 'catch' loads would pull the tailplane off, but thinking about shock loading, maybe not.
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