Sun, Jul 20, 2008
Pilot Cut Entangled Parachute Rigging From Landing Gear
Allowing Diver To Use Reserve Chute
Disaster was avoided in Germany Thursday after a quick-thinking
(and acting) pilot left the controls of his aircraft to untangle
the lines of a skydiver who had become entangled in the landing
gear after exiting the aircraft.
Six members of a British military parachute team were over the
Joint Service Parachute Center at Bad Lippspringe in Germany for a
competition according to the London Daily Mail. The first five
soldiers on the team exited successfully, but the sixth ran into
problems when his partially deployed parachute tangled in the
landing gear of the drop plane, a twin-engined Britten-Norman BN-2
Islander.
One soldier, who witnessed the incident from the ground, said
"We were watching the plane when I noticed there was a man dangling
upside down by some sort of cable. They must have been flying at
about 140mph. He was completely caught up.”
At 3,000 feet above the drop zone, the civilian pilot noticed
the team member -- an instructor -- frantically waiving at the back
of the plane. The pilot then left his seat for 30 seconds to cut
through the snagged lines and free the skydiver.
“We saw it for about 50 seconds and the plane seemed to be
descending so we assumed the pilot had to land with the man still
underneath” added the witness.
Once clear of the aircraft, the parachutist was able to make a
safe landing after releasing his reserve parachute.
It was thought a technical malfunction caused the chute to
partially deploy prematurely, thus entangling as the parachutist
jumped.
The locally-based pilot -- a former British soldier who has
asked to remain anonymous -- said he was “only doing his job
and any other pilot would have done the same.”
A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense said Friday,
“the pilot showed significant bravery and skill.”
“We are unaware of a rescue like this happening
before” he added.
More News
Airbus Racer Demonstrator Makes Inaugural Flight Airbus Helicopters' ambitious Racer demonstrator has achieved its inaugural flight as part of the Clean Sky 2 initiative, a corners>[...]
A little Bit Quieter, Said Testers, But in the End it's Still a DA40 Diamond Aircraft recently completed a little pilot project with Lufthansa Aviation Training, putting a pair of >[...]
Line Up And Wait (LUAW) Used by ATC to inform a pilot to taxi onto the departure runway to line up and wait. It is not authorization for takeoff. It is used when takeoff clearance >[...]
Contributing To The Accident Was The Pilot’s Use Of Methamphetamine... Analysis: The pilot departed on a local flight to perform low-altitude maneuvers in a nearby desert val>[...]
From 2015 (YouTube Version): Overcoming Obstacles To Achieve Their Dreams… At EAA AirVenture 2015, FedEx arrived with one of their Airbus freight-hauling aircraft and placed>[...]
Airbus Racer Helicopter Demonstrator First Flight Part of Clean Sky 2 Initiative
See All