Tragic Tandem Jump
Good afternoon all,
I got a phone call on Saturday around 4:45pm informing me that my friend and former coworker, had passed away on a tandem skydive, in all probability of a heart attack under his main parachute on a tandem jump. My wife and I have yet to make peace with the fact he is gone, but we take comfort in knowing that he died doing what he loved most in the world, skydiving.
Mary and I talked it over last night and we decided that we wanted to offer the winnipesaukee.com community some insight into the safety protocols that go into making a tandem skydive, in that hopes that it would provide some peace of mind to those in the community that may have questions stemming from this incident.
The first thing I would like to offer is that in order to qualify to become a tandem instructor, every candidate is required to go through an FAA Class III flight physical administered by an appropriately rated FAA Medical Examiner. This medical certificate is also required to be a Student Pilot' to pursue aircraft flight training, including solo training flights. The Class III is required to be kept current, meaning every three years it must be renewed if you are under 40 and every 2 years if you are over 40. In this case, the instructor did have a current FAA Class III medical certificate.
The second thing I would like to offer is that both the main and reserve parachutes are set to open in a "half brake" setting, so that if in the unlikely event the tandem instructor is rendered unable to control the parachute, it will sail to the ground in a slow, survivable speed. Both the main and reserve parachutes are also exceptionally large and docile parachutes, again, so that in the highly unlikely event no input is given once the parachute is open, the canopy will drift slowly to the ground.
The third safety protocol I would like to offer is that all tandem parachute systems are equipped with on board computers, called AADs. These Automatic Activation Devices are a secondary safety protocol, or "back up" if you will. In the highly unlikely event that a tandem instructor is unable to deploy the parachute once in freefall, the AAD unit will automatically release the reserve parachute at a predetermined altitude high enough to allow it to float to the ground once deployed.
With these three safety protocols in place, tandem passengers are protected from the highly unlikely event of a tandem instructor being rendered unable to do his (or her) job. I offer all of this information to the community to assure you all that your collective safety is our industry's number one priority and while no aeronautical activity can be made 100% risk free, there are multiple safety protocols in place to ensure that tandem passengers are not placed in any undue risk situations, even in highly uncommon scenarios such as what occurred this past weekend.
My wife and I continue to remain available to answer any and all skydiving specifics questions or concerns, but I hope you will all understand if we choose not go into specifics regarding the loss of our friend. General questions about the incident are fine, we just cannot in good faith, publicly discuss details of our friend's passing.
The tandem passenger that attempted CPR is truly a hero and despite the pain of our loss, we are comforted in the thought that in the last moments of our friend's life, he was cared for and not alone. Hopefully someday we will have the opportunity to meet the tandem student and thank him personally.
Blue skies to all and to all a good flight,
Tom
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