Well, as Exascot can confirm, I am qualified to critique this 'event'
I have the greatest respect for the Red Fred's and, in years gone by, have jumped with many members of the team.
There are some myths that need laying to rest here. It was a low show due to cloud cover, but within laid down limits.
It was an intentional water descent, with the primary DZ being in one of the Whitehaven harbours. The remainder of the team all landed in the water, just not the same water. Water jumps need a lot of planning to complete safely and from what I can see all relevant safety procedures were in place.
The Red Freds excel in demonstration Canopy Relative Work (CRW) and have been innovators in this discipline for many years. Now, as with all things aviation related, altitude is your friend. It appears in this case that CRW was initiated below 2,500ft. In my day this was strictly verboten, at that height if you have a problem you have no time to correct the situation. As a team leader, if we were intending a CRW display, that would be my absolute minimum for CRW initiation. The normal corrective action (with height available) the guy on top who is wrapped up in the canopy will attempt to free said canopy and, whilst communicating to the guy below, when free drop the guy below. The canopy will then re inflate, normally within a hundred feet or so. If it doesn't inflate the dropped guy would then cutaway his failing main canopy and deploy his reserve. If the guy above cannot free the canopy wrapped around him he will tell the guy below to cutaway and deploy his reserve. This then leaves the guy above with his own canopy flying but still wrapped in a canopy that is now not under tension. Again in most cases you can now untangle yourself and throw the wrapped canopy away and continue to the DZ. In exceptional circumstances the wrap canopy can begin to re inflate around your own lines and at this point becomes entirely unpredictable. Again with sufficient height you would cutaway the two wrapped main canopies and deploy your reserve.
With CRW this is a situation that is trained for rigorously and in this case only became noteworthy due to the lack of altitude.
The question I would be asking is: Who authorised CRW initiation below 2,500ft.
This is the crux of the matter and I would expect that whoever it was will be having a hats on, no coffee with OC Red Devils on Monday morning.
Regardless, for those not familiar, it has been publicity for the team, no one was injured, more importantly no spectators were injured. The number one rule for any display is "Do NOT bend the crowd"
Please note that at no time did I use the words "plunging, plummeting, hurtling or death defying" but then I'm not a qualified journalist.
