Events above narrated by Bill Von Novak:
On Saturday at Rantoul their was a close call with an Otter. A jumper had his main deploy in the door
after his container opened prematurely. The main deployed over the top of the tail, and he ended up
under the tail, pinned by his risers. The main (mostly) inflated and rendered the aircraft difficult to control.
We stared a bailout. After about ten seconds most of the parachute cleared the tail, leaving only the pilot
chute, bridle and some lines on the horizontal stabilizer. We continued the bailout until only two of us were
left in the plane. At that point everything had cleared the tail, so we took a close look at the horizontal
stab and reported its condition to the pilot (since he couldn't see the tail or the extent of any possible
damage.) The tail looked like it was in good shape. The pilot turned around, gave us a pass over the DZ
and we exited at 10,500 (the aircraft had lost about 2500 feet during the incident.)
The jumper who had the premature deployment was not seriously injured; he scraped up his shoulder
and landed safely under his reserve. The aircraft was inspected and pronounced undamaged, and
returned to flying a short time later. The jumper's closing loop had broken on the previous pack job while
the packer was trying to close his rig, and the packer had replaced it with an identical-length closing loop.
Per the packer the loop was tight. The video shows the jumper looking out the door with an open
container; he then climbs out to the front float position and his main deploys immediately.
On Saturday at Rantoul their was a close call with an Otter. A jumper had his main deploy in the door
after his container opened prematurely. The main deployed over the top of the tail, and he ended up
under the tail, pinned by his risers. The main (mostly) inflated and rendered the aircraft difficult to control.
We stared a bailout. After about ten seconds most of the parachute cleared the tail, leaving only the pilot
chute, bridle and some lines on the horizontal stabilizer. We continued the bailout until only two of us were
left in the plane. At that point everything had cleared the tail, so we took a close look at the horizontal
stab and reported its condition to the pilot (since he couldn't see the tail or the extent of any possible
damage.) The tail looked like it was in good shape. The pilot turned around, gave us a pass over the DZ
and we exited at 10,500 (the aircraft had lost about 2500 feet during the incident.)
The jumper who had the premature deployment was not seriously injured; he scraped up his shoulder
and landed safely under his reserve. The aircraft was inspected and pronounced undamaged, and
returned to flying a short time later. The jumper's closing loop had broken on the previous pack job while
the packer was trying to close his rig, and the packer had replaced it with an identical-length closing loop.
Per the packer the loop was tight. The video shows the jumper looking out the door with an open
container; he then climbs out to the front float position and his main deploys immediately.