Two skydivers fall from aircraft in difficulty
 

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw...a9e13e68285309

“Two people have died following a skydiving tragedy in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.

Police said emergency services were contacted about an aircraft carrying two skydivers that was “in difficulty” just before 1pm on Sunday in Goulburn, about 195km southwest of Sydney.

“Two parachutists fell from the aircraft and landed near the runway of the airport,” police said in a statement.

“They were located unresponsive and unable to be revived.”

NCA NewsWire understands the parachutists were men aged in their 30s.

Hume Police District officers will investigate the circumstances of the tragedy, with the assistance of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.”

The aircraft appears to have landed according to nine news.

All sounds very odd....

DF.

Just speculation, but skydivers have a culture of being very skittish about aircraft- with some justification given the sh1t-boxes often used for skydiving. I know people who've exited at 500' because an engine burped.

MAYBE the "difficulty" involved something audible to do with an engine, and a jumper deciding he wanted to be under his parachute. If so, awful that a passenger was also subject to that decision.

Another factor is that jumpers are supposed to use single-point restraints in the aircraft- I've seen exactly one person do so- a CASA inspector!! The fact that this is a requirement that has been routinely ignored and never enforced in decades is a bit of an indictment.

Nine News report showed a photo briefly that seemed to be the two skydivers tangled/attached underneath the jump plane (Cessna)

https://www.9news.com.au/national/tw...d-2ea23490e20a

Condolences to those involved.

2GB Radio News claims that a 'chute got caught on part of the aircraft (undercarriage?) and was damaged.

Possibly interfered with the 'reserve' chute..??

Sad event..

The preliminary report has been released by the APF, looks as though the pilot was trying to free the tandem jumpers with a knife but had a tough time trying to do that while flying the aircraft. One can only imagine the range of problems, not to mention having limited fuel/time to work the problem. Feel very sorry for all involved.

https://mcusercontent.com/e8fc934d6d...al_Summary.pdf

A very similar accident occurred at Ashbourne airfield, Derbyshire, in 1975. A parachutist became entangled with the step on the undercarriage of the jump plane (a Cessna 182). The pilot climbed, to give extra time, hoping that the parachutist could use his reserve ‘chute. Before he could be cut free, he actually pulled his reserve chute, which stalled the aircraft and he, the jump-master and the pilot all came down to earth, partly inverted and still attached to it.

However, they all survived with injuries.

The parachutist later became an RAF navigator.

I just found this link to the archive of this forum:

https://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-203933.html

Which DZ’s have you been to? I would actually say it’s rare you would see jumpers not wear single points.

I’ll second that.