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Tue, Mar 11, 2003

Washington State Drop Zone Under Media/FAA Attack (Part Two)

An ANN Special Report: Since When Is The FAA Using the Media to Do Its Dirtywork?

(Part Two of a Four Part Special Report)

One of the amazing lessons of the last few years is that fewer and fewer skydivers are dying because their rigs don't open before impact. The new generation of high performance ram-air canopies perform extraordinarily well... though there are some that perform quite mildly, and some that perform quite aggressively (i.e., along the lines of the differences one might find between a Cessna 150 and a Pitts Special). Those aggressive canopies are now being blamed for nearly half the fatal accidents that befall skydivers each year, as their failure to learn to properly pilot their canopies results in high speed descents that often end in catastrophic impact.

Since most of those who buy and operate such canopies are experienced jumpers (with that kind of performance, you almost have to be), properly licensed and with the proper privileges established before-hand, it is their right to try more and more aggressively featured canopies to derive the kind of performance they ultimately seek. In other words, a licensed jumper has the right to choose a high performance canopy and the DZ they jump from has little to say in the matter.

Kapowsin, was the location, though, for a horrific and notable tragedy in which two student/instructor teams were involved in fatal accidents over the course of just two days. The tragic coincidence involved "Tandem" skydive instruction in which a licensed Tandem Instructor is attached to a student, who then freefall and deploy a parachute as a single unit. That way, the skill and knowledge of the instructor is literally inches away from the student at all times. Some times, though, that isn't always enough. Fate can be tricky. 

The pair of documented accidents occurred when the student in the first fatal tandem team "reached up unexpectedly and pulled the emergency canopy release handle before the tandem master could stop her." A mysterious deployment of the reserve resulted in a spinning canopy and the death of the instructor. That accident was deemed the result of an "unpreventable" student action. Such an accident can be likened to a student who pulls the mixture in the air instead of the carburetor heat... it happens so fast, and unexpectedly, that without sufficient time to correct the action, the results are often insurmountable. The other accident was even more strange... While on approach for landing, a student/instructor tandem team was hit by what was described as a violent bit of low-altitude wind shear. What ensued was a rare, partial canopy collapse that greatly increased their rate of descent. They were so low when the wind shear hit, they didn't have time to initiate a recovery before impact. The student was killed in that accident.

The Kyle Robinson Accident

One of the cornerstones of the Kapowsin story was Halsne's heart-rending tale, of Kyle Robinson... a jumper who died some eight years previously. The tale was emotionally rendered by Robinson's father. Claiming that Kapowsin's death rate was "four times the national average," Halsne told an alarming story of a drop zone that appeared to have no concern for the safety of its jumpers, aircraft or those in the surrounding area. At first look, it's a hell of an alarming story... the kind that makes you sit up and take notice. It would have been, if the story had been portrayed accurately. In conversations with ANN, the USPA says Kapowsin's operation was looked over "thoroughly" after that deadly weekend and found to have not been at fault in either accident. That fact was omitted from Halsne's story on KIRO.

Kyle Robinson was an experienced skydiver with upwards of 500 jumps under his belt. He died after trying out a new, high-performance canopy. Robinson was jumping a new canopy called a Stiletto 135... and he had only jumped it a few times before his death. Somehow, he managed to impair its normal operating configuration so low to the ground that the recovery was simply not possible before impact.

While Robinson was an experienced/licensed jumper, that canopy was quite new to him. In fact, the canopy was fully open and deployed before the accident that claimed his life. According to published witness reports, Robinson did a hard turn at 300 feet that was so fast as to induce line twists in the suspension lines between his canopy and harness. Such line twists not only make it difficult to control the canopy, but may induce a turning moment if the line twists are not symmetrically incurred. The result was a short, steep spiral (with the canopy still partially collapsed) that the reportedly 200+ pound Robinson was unable to arrest before impacting on his side at a speed estimated to be about 35 mph.

Journalist Mark Harju, a contributor to Skydiving magazine, sums up the incident succinctly, "Despite being warned not to, Kyle Robinson knowingly risked flying a small canopy with a reputation for being difficult and dangerous to handle. He lost control of it and died in a bad landing. To imply that Kapowsin Air Sports or the Farrington family is somehow to blame for Robinson's death is irresponsible."

One must note that the story quotes Kyle's father, Bill Robinson, as saying that he "welcomes a federal safety investigation." The fact is that the way skydiving intersects with flying is largely regulated under FAR Part 105. However; the majority of the regulatory responsibility thrust upon the skydiving community is borne by the US Parachute Association... who has an extensive system of licensing, instruction, inspections and oversight that has had a strong impact (no pun intended) on the accident rate of the sport parachuting community... a continually improving accident rate that is far less than it was in year's past. USPA does provide oversight and investigation into sport parachuting accidents... including that which claimed the life of Kyle Robinson. USPA's expertise is recognized and called upon by the FAA and NTSB as warranted, in it's investigations of skydiving matters. USPA found no fault with Kapowsin, its staff, or its operations, and pretty much indicated that the Robinson accident was a situation in which Robinson's errors contributed to his own demise.

To be continued...

Read Part One
Read Part Three
Read Part Four
FMI: http://www.skydivenet.com/kapowsin/dropzone.htm, http://www.kirotv.com/video/1990838/detail.html, http://www.kirotv.com

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