I’m no jump pilot, just a mere student of flying.
However, I believe they wear chutes in case one of the meat bombs gets caught up in the tail plane. This happened earlier in the year to a Caravan driver who was able to bail out before the aeroplane hit the deck. A very lucky man it would seem by the photos.
I guess some might argue that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if the rest of us cruising around in circa 1970 Cherokees, 152s etc were wearing some sort of parachute.
