Horrifying parachute accident

[Cyclic Hotline]

Condolences to everyone involved with this accident.

Propeller Kills Parachutist

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) - A parachutist was killed instantly when she struck a plane's propeller while practicing a skydiving formation with 29 other jumpers.

Michele Thibaudeau, 36, and eight other parachutists were in one airplane Sunday and the other 20 jumpers were on a second aircraft.

After jumping, Thibaudeau hit the propeller of the other aircraft and was killed on impact, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman John Clabes said.

Thibaudeau's boyfriend, who was last in line to jump from the plane, followed her body 14,000 feet to its impact in Fentress, according to Sky Dive San Marcos owner Phillip Chappell.

The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.

"I've never heard of anything like that before,'' Clabes said. "You hear about fatalities when people jump out of planes and their chutes don't open, but not this.''

Thibaudeau, of Cartersville, Ga., had completed more than 850 jumps.

All the parachutists had completed a minimum of 400 jumps - double the number the U.S. Parachute Association uses to determine expert status, Chappell said.

[gul dukat]

Precisely the reason why we have to have NO engines turning when paradrops are taking place over the airfield !! Sorry to hear the Americans didn't apparently have the same rules.

edited cos I read the nationality wrong

[This message has been edited by gul dukat (edited 31 May 2001).]

[smallfry]

What a tragedy.
Gul Dukat . The way I read this is that she was hit by the other paradrop 'plane in the air, not on the ground.

[patrickal]

There was another strange parachuting accident over here in Massachusets several years ago. A skydiver in freefall hit the rudder of a small plane that was flying IFR through the drop zone. The skydiver suffered a severe ankle injury, but the plane suffered major damage to the rudder and crashed. The pilot, his teenage daughter and a friend of hers were killed. Obviously other planes in drop zones don't mix.

[liv2fly]

It can be difficult to get out of a drop zone in the US. They are marked on the maps, but there is nothing to say you can't be in that airspace. The drop aircraft is to announce the drop some time before it happens, this is usually two minutes before, one minute before, and then jumpers away, done on the approach control or center frequency. I've been over airports or in the area before and there would have been no way to precisely judge where the jumper aircraft would be in a minute or two minutes'time.

The only thing you can do at a time like that is keep a very good look outside, but as accidents like the one mentioned in Massachusetts show, it's not always going to be possible to avoid a parachute jumper coming down at terminal velocity.

It's a real shame this has had to happen, though. My condolences to the young lady involved.