Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!news.nd.edu!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!purdue!haven!uvaarpa!murdoch!dalton.acc.Virginia.EDU!ds4a
From: ds4a@dalton.acc.Virginia.EDU (Dale Southard)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: Near Accident...
Message-ID: <1991Mar18.171535.26409@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 18 Mar 91 17:15:35 GMT
References: <8bt3JYm00V86NdvX4E@andrew.cmu.edu>
Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 41

In article <8bt3JYm00V86NdvX4E@andrew.cmu.edu> bb1v+@andrew.cmu.edu (Barry Lowell Brumitt) writes:
>
>
>
>Yesterday, I was witness to what very easily could have been a plane
>crash and 4 fatalities.
>
>[stuff deleted]
>
>Talking to Person 2 afterward, it was decided that he must have brushed
>against the side of the plane, releasing his pin, and letting the bag
>drop out of the container. He said that he immediately let go, and when he was
>stuck hanging, cut away.
>
>[more stuff deleted]


Actually, this occurs more than it should -- I know of three other such 
"incidents".

Out of interest -- What kind of rig does person 2 own?  Is the velcro well
maintained?  I ask because two of the three cases I know of occured with
National Parachute "mirage" containers or "Rapid Transit" sytems, which are
just about identical.  Both have a main container flap that opens sideways
from left to right, making it an easy target for the doorframe of a C-182.
And once that flap is gone...the pin can come soon after.

(The third incident, BTW, involved a Tandem rig and its RESERVE.  Luckly,
the reserve opened cleanly and did not wrap around/entangle with the aircraft.
But I was told it was still pretty exciting,)

I should mention here the importance of gear maintainence -- mainly because I
am a poor rigger, but also because properly maintained gear is less likely to
incure such problems. Note that I am not saying that "Person 2" was negligent
in his gear maintaince, only that proper maintaince can reduce these types of
incidents.




-->  -->  Dale  UVa  (ds4a@virginia.edu)