The (heavily redacted) command investigations into the deaths of SOCS Thomas Valentine and SOC Lance Vacarro are linked to this Arizona Daily Star story:
Two seasoned Navy SEALs who died during parachute training near Marana last year made mistakes that hurled them to their deaths, military investigators have determined.Both had jumped safely hundreds of times before in practice and in combat, yet succumbed to human error despite their vast expertise, official reports on the deaths concluded.The two died within three weeks of each other in separate mishaps last winter after taking off from the Parachute Training and Testing Facility at Pinal Air Park, just north of Marana. An Army Ranger doing parachute training died at the same site less than six months later.
Gripping reading about the tragic loss of two heroes.
The comments after the article are kind of interesting too. 3 deaths (an Army SO guy was cited in the article) at the same facility with similar circumstances would – to me – point beyond just “operator error” in my mind. The thought of an issue with how the chutes were packed came to my mind as I was reading, but I know nothing of their porcedures so I can’t say any more then that.
Brian
ok, I am a civilian with no training in jumping but I do know that nobody packs their own shutes anymore, and this description raises big questions in my mind – how 2 experienced and battle tested SEALs could make similar mistakes?? Were they testing some new equipment?? Granted it is written by an ADS and thus could be slanted but still…
I watched the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team jump a few times. I was flabbergasted when I watched a corporal have two young boys from the crowd pack his parachute. I asked about that. He said it really didn’t matter that much how you packed the newer sport chutes, they’d pretty much always deploy. And he went out and jumped that very same chute about 2 hours later.
I’d be real interested in Xformed’s comments on this one… he’s done this a bit.
Back when I used to jump, everyone packed their own main, and I suspect the same applies today. Recent TV show on Mil HALO training showed students packing their own mains under a time penalty.
I have said, and still believe, that a round canopy can be stuffed into a garbage sack and still open. Not sure about the wings.
The entanglement speaks to poor body position and/or loss of control immediately prior to deployment. More history on jumper quals is needed. 300 jumps isn’t a lot, these days. What was their night jump training/experience? Night jumps can be disorienting, particularly on a dark night with no horizon.
It would be interesting to know what the long-term accident rate was at this facility. Three fatals could just be coincidence, or it could be indicative of systemic probs with the operation.
Mike
Most likely they were flying square rigs. They can bite the chutist no matter his experience. Doesn’t happen often but can do it.
BMG Mike,
yeah, the number of accidents is not really relevant without some sort of causal link. My wing (PatWing 5) up at BNAS lost 3 P-3’s in an 18 month period with all aboard. Lots of folks in the civilian community were tossing about all sorts of conspiracy theories and coverup tales, but when the accident boards were completed, there were no links between the accidents, other than all being the same type of aircraft. Different missions, different squadrons, different conditions, etc.
Sometimes it just works out that way. Sad, but true.
Heck, my own son’s very first jump at Airborne school his risers twisted. However, novice that he was, he followed procedure and sorted things out.
BMG Mike
Did some sport parachuting back in the early 60’s. We had a couple of guys at the DZ do that with modified T-10 canopies. It was called “Russian Rigging”. Kinda stupid, I thought then, and still do.
SOC Lance Vacarro was the son of a woman I used to work with and our paths still cross. My heart broke for her then and broke for her all over again when I read this.
Got a few jumps in my past…and hold Gold Wings (USPA style…> 1000 jumps), so here I go (oh, qualified as an instructor for many, many years, too, but not current any longer):
The jumps were most likely made with the 360 sq ft 7 cell canopy the military has been using for this type of “work” for well over a decade. Bring that large (my canopy is 120 sq ft), they are relatively docile, but any fast turn on a “square” induces Gs and pushes you down in the harness, cutting off blood flow to the legs, making about 3 full fast turns on my “sports car” uncomfortable to make you know that fun time is over. I doubt that canopy could be as fast in rate of turn, but then they go out the door heavier (more clothes and oxygen equipment, at the very least), so that all would not help in the physics.
Back before I stopped (10 yrs ago), there were were several incidents reported where jumpers either could not “cut away” the main canopy, or reported (if successful) using to the limit of the adrenaline focused power to get rid of a spinning main. These cases were related to high performance elliptical canopies, which were just beginning to make a dent in the market at the time. Lots of work went into reworking the cut away cable channels, routing and material as a result. Many, many articles or notices were in Parachutist, too.
That condition, in a fast turn, which may have been caused by a line over condition (that was my next to last reserve ride proximate cause.
I opened, and the normal “opening shock” hammered my chin into my chest, I looked up, saw the line over about 1/3rd of the way from the left edge, and, while making my observation, began a fast spin to the left.
Got out 1 1/2 turns done and, a fellow jumper on the load, told me I went straight out from the plane of the turn when I cut away, which, took a pretty solid pull. As trained, the reserve handle was movement #4 (1 – look/move hand to cut away “pillow” 2 – look/move hand to reserve handle 3 – peel (velcroed in place) and PULL! cut away handle, then 4 – you know what it was) and the reserve deployed nicely behind me perpendicular to mother earth. The rest was “uneventful.” Finding my main in the woods of NC…another story.
He may have been in such a condition, but with limited vision (most likely wearing NVGs) and unable to look down and right far enough to see his cut away handle. We trained, trained, and beat it (verbally) into students to “LOOK!” at the think they really wanted to grab. Trust me, there are some big names no longer with us as a result of “thinking” they had the handles…
The canopies, like an aircraft, increase the rate of turn with each circle, while control input (artificially in this case). If you can’t neutralize your controls, or counter them, then the forces increase and your arms will tend to fly outwards as a result. Been there, felt it…but mostly when playing “test pilot” on new canopies I was hanging under.
Next topic: They all wear “AADs” (automatic activating devices), which sense the rate of fall. If, at a set altitude (not sure for military, but my Cypress Expert set the “hard deck” @ 800 ft), you’re exceeding a certain percent of freefall speed, then it activates cutters to cut the reserve pin loops and thereby, free the reserve to deploy, which, it works (got stupid one time chasing a student). In the condition I postulated above, with a spinning main overhead, the reserve would have quickly become entangled and merely slowed the descent a small bit, due to a little bit more fabric being in the wind stream. Survival from a spinning main counts on cutting away the guilty canopy first, then giving the reserve clean air.
As far as packing: Military guys (SF from Ft Collins) I saw at Marana in 1996, they had been there all week. I don’t know if they were rated riggers, or just packing thier own gear, but my experience, when they are doing military jumps, the riggers pack.
Sport jumpers are required by FAA to pack thier own, or have it done by a rigger, or someone under an FAA certified riggers supervision. I’ll also say this. A number of people have made some pretty good money on big jump weekends, for those who would rather not sweat and cuss for about 6-8 minutes (I could easily do mine in that, without cussing), about $10/pack job. That, I suspect isn’t an issue here, unless I see other info. When military uys jump in, they aren’t going to worry what happens to the chutes. They’re walking/swimming/McQuired or heloed out. PRs have the union shop in charge.