Army Parachutist in heavy impact at football match

[mickjoebill]

An army parachutist has had a very heavy landing on the playing field, in the leadup to an AFL football match this afternoon at SGC. This is the ANZAC round.
He lay motionless after the very heavy impact and commentators were shocked into silence.
He has been stretchered off 10 minutes after the landing. Great concern for his condition has been expressed by ABC radio commentators, who were on air at the time, one saying it was the worst incident he has ever experienced.
He was described as "completely out of control" apparently due to very gusty winds. It is now raining.
Fox Sport report that he is conscious.

Video here.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/parachutist-crashes-on-scg-turf-during-pregame-entertainment/news-story/1f0691ef4064c1a984ef5179bcf86c18?from=public_rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&nk=b29f1be8b2f35fcd19a019d05f57cc42-1461383432


Mickjoebill

[Di_Vosh]

Ouch!

Always an element of risk doing this stuff.

At the 95 Grand Final there was a similar jump with the red berets. Some poor sod drew the short straw and had Dipper (Robert Dipierdomenico) as his tandem jumper. Face planted during the rehearsal so didn't go ahead.

Our part of the entertainment was to abseil from the roof of the great southern stand and onto the field. One bloke messed up his brake and landed on a spectator in a balcony.

DIVOSH!

[mickjoebill]

Statement from Ambulance service is he suffered leg and pelvic injuries and will make a full recovery.

Commentators say that they can still see the imprint of his body in the turf.


Mickjoebill

[wheels_down]

Know nothing about dropping....but I assume there are wind limits for parachuting?

YSSY TAF looks a little wild today.

[Di_Vosh]

There are limits for dropping. I've only ever been involved in rounds (T10B-D's and MC-1's, not the new ones), which had a 13 Knot ground limit. 20 Knots at release height IIRC.

No idea for squares.

The DZSO (Drop Zone Safety Officer) will have an anemometer for measuring wind speed but he/she will be on the ground, and wont be able to measure what's going on near the top of the stadium.

DIVOSH!

[Squawk7700]

No Cookies | Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/skydiver-injured-in-crashlanding-at-sydney-cricket-groud-ahead-of-afl-match/news-story/8d03a726b2adee737ea52cccd8ad9c3f)Video here. Certainly looks painful and fast. The second one looks like he almost came unstuck too. I can imagine as big as the area is, it would feel quite small on approach.

[Wizofoz]

Flak jacket on but here's the thing- a lot of the military teams are actually very low experience jumpers.

No civy organizer would put jumpers into that situation without a minimum of an "E" license, which is 500 jumps and a host of other qualifications.

Most military instructors don't have those levels of experience.

[gerry111]

That's rather concerning, as the ADF's been doing this sort of stuff very safely for so many years.

[red_dirt]

Wizofoz

Do you actually believe what you just typed??

[Trevor the lover]

Nice try WIZ - but you are Full of sh!t.


I was the RAAF officer at the parachute school for 2 years. I did actually jump as a Red Beret. You are correct that indeed some of the RB jumpers are low time - I was one of them. They are not like the Roulettes - ie one dedicated team. The boss of the team picks the team based on the complexity of the jump. But to say a lot of the teams are low time. Rubbish.


I was doing displays with just 85 jumps total - but the drop zones I could do were the big country shows landing in big footy grounds, or big paddocks. The big stadium jumps were always the most experienced and competent guys. So jumping in to this ground last night would have been an A team - but accidents can still occur.


To say that many military instructors would not probably have 2000 jumps - yes, SOME. But MOST - no way. Most have way over that. Remember, they are military jumpers and 99% also jump on weekends, so 2,000 jumps is nothing to nearly all of them.

[mickjoebill]

I was doing displays with just 85 jumps total - but the drop zones I could do were the big country shows landing in big footy grounds, or big paddocks. The big stadium jumps were always the most experienced and competent guys. So jumping in to this ground last night would have been an A team - but accidents can still occur.


What considerations are made in planning of four or five lighting towers around a stadium?

Can one make a judgement of choice of direction of this landing by the direction of smoke as depicted on the videos?

Mickjoebill

[Ixixly]

Good to hear he'll recover, doesn't matter how experienced or how good you are sometimes, Mother Nature and Lady Luck are a fickle couple and have a way of making it all worthless sometimes!!

Any word on how long it'll take for full recovery of his ego? I doubt the boys will be letting this one go too quickly!

[Lantern10]

Just glad he will recover.

[Keg]

I was at the game and was amazed at the wind. Cloud was pretty low too. I'm no parachutist but suspected it wa close to limits.

The really interesting thing was the southerly on top of the stands and the nor-easter at ground level. Even then the way the ground level smoke swirled around at times was very intriguing. Ultimately that's what looked like brought the poor RB undone. He was looking good and then near instantaneously about 30' up it looked like his chute just stalled.

From the outset he was static and I was quite worried as I'd suspected he'd been knocked out and with the speed he'd hit I suspected broken bones. From where I was I'm surprised there wasn't a broken collar bone as well.

Anyway, a broken pelvis is no doubt a painful thing but I'm just glad it was t a lot worse.

[megan]

just glad it was t a lot worse+1. A BA wide body skipper lost his life at Orlando not so long ago when his chute collapsed while landing in the lee of a line of trees. Can only imagine the eddies/turbulence etc in the middle of a stadium with a stiff breeze.

[Fark'n'ell]

Can one make a judgement of choice of direction of this landing by the direction of smoke as depicted on the videos?

Quite right Mick.Hooked in downwind close to the ground.Reasonable wind blowing.Looks like the canopy stalled just prior to landing.
Watch the video just prior to landing.I see the last one to land landed downwind also.
Not a smart thing to do under a square canopy.

[Trevor the lover]

What considerations are made in planning of four or five lighting towers around a stadium?

Can one make a judgement of choice of direction of this landing by the direction of smoke as depicted on the videos?





For these stadium jumps the team does a pre jump visit and assesses the zone looking for the risks, things such as towers.


I remember one of the super experienced jumpers at the army parachute school telling me how they approach a stadium jump. He said the biggest threat is the swirling wind created by the grandstands. As such, the usual wind limits are lowered. He said you need to come in on half breaks (for better stall protection I think - ie on half brakes, if you hit turbulence you dump the brakes and surge through it, like applying power in windshear.) Once below the lip of the stands you can dump the brakes and accelerate again - going faster allows a better landing - the V squared rule in the lift formula.


I believe on this particular jump, based on what has been written about the weather conditions, a poor decision was made by the drop zone safety officer. Something he will now have to answer for.


So why a poor decision - well of course its simple, pressure to perform. These entertainment activities, in my day, were always put together by a 3rd party events company. And these companys love the military guys because they come at no charge - Roullettes, RBs etc. But the event company does have costs to recoup. For instance the use of Snowbird. No jump means the events company is still paying a huge fee for the aircraft and possibly accom and allowances for the teams. So the pressure is on the teams to perform. Yes I know, a perceived pressure that should be ignored.


But as I said, I believe it was a poor decision to jump and the jumper got caught out by the conditions. Generally the aim is that the team will follow the leader down closely and they all land in a beautiful line with smoke and flags trailing. It looks great when it works right. But they were a bit all over the shop here - another possible indication of the conditions they were battling.

[cattletruck]

Very glad he will make a full recovery.

Back in my yoof our high school was privileged enough to play a soccer match on the hallowed turf of the MCG. It was frustratingly annoying how the light winds would pick up the soccer ball and twist it around in a spiral, it was very unlike the school oval and made a mess of our teams skills.

We lost, not because of the winds but because of the 25 y/o ring-ins of Richmond High (that or they really were that thick in Richmond).

Stadium jumps of the ilk of SCG should simply not be allowed at all. Their is just too much unpredictability with respect to the wind in the final critical phase of the manoeuvre.

[Stanwell]

Bill Moyes, the famous kite-man/hang gliding pioneer found out all about that one evening at the Sydney Showground arena back in the 60s.
He wasn't entirely happy with the conditions but the pressure to perform from the promoters brought about a horrifying result.
I witnessed it.
Amazingly, he survived - a much wiser man.

[maehhh]

Stadium jumps of the ilk of SCG should simply not be allowed at all.

Hell yeah, lets ban it by law, that's the Aussie way of life!

[donpizmeov]

I hope they ban them jumping into warzones as well....might be a bit dangerous.

[cattletruck]

WTF brought this nanny state mentality comment about, get a grip man.

Also, I think parachuting into a war zone would be the least of your problems.