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Guy has seizure while sky diving and is saved by instructor
- Thread starter Nexus
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Lucky somebody was there to activate the parachute.
Should he have been parachuting in the first place?
At what point is risk of death too great for someone to engage in parachuting?
Then there are the guys that jump with no parachute and have to harness themselves while falling and then deploy before the sudden stop.
Is it luck if the instructor was trained to intervene because of potential failure to deploy?
I am kind of at odds with this happening.
Should he have been parachuting in the first place?
At what point is risk of death too great for someone to engage in parachuting?
Then there are the guys that jump with no parachute and have to harness themselves while falling and then deploy before the sudden stop.
Is it luck if the instructor was trained to intervene because of potential failure to deploy?
I am kind of at odds with this happening.
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Keith&Co.
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Well, that depends on whether he knew he was subject to seizures.
This may have been the jumper's first seizure, ever.
I have seen a number of submarine-disqualifying conditions that never presented until they were on the submarine.... Whoops.
that is why I asked "At what point is risk of death too great for someone to engage in parachuting?".
should the standard be different for people with certain aliments versus people who are healthier?
just shooting the shit, but I'd say stephen hawking can do a tandem but is solo acceptable?
fast
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Okay, who wants to do the math?
From my understanding, had the instructor not pulled the cord of the guy who had a seizure (starting at 9,000 feet) and regained consciousness (at 3,000 feet), then his shoot would have automatically opened (a safety feature); furthermore, there was a second safety feature; however, let's disregard the safety features and assume they were inoperable. Here's the thing: the velocity of his decent changed once the shoot opened, and he did regain consciousness. My thoughts are that (and again, assume no safety features), if the instructor had not pulled the cord slowing his decent, he would have either died because he would not have regained consciousness in time (something much less than 3,000 feet--like ground zero, or he would have gained consciousness before ground zero (but still so low that it wouldn't have mattered, or 3) he would have regained consciousness and been able to save himself.
It's hard to ask the question since there is a ground zero, so we could assume he didn't start the jump at 12,000 feet but instead 30,000 feet (and never mind any change in velocity given any changes in atmosphere, but instead, let's just pretend no ground zero. How many more feet would he have dropped had the shoot never opened?
From my understanding, had the instructor not pulled the cord of the guy who had a seizure (starting at 9,000 feet) and regained consciousness (at 3,000 feet), then his shoot would have automatically opened (a safety feature); furthermore, there was a second safety feature; however, let's disregard the safety features and assume they were inoperable. Here's the thing: the velocity of his decent changed once the shoot opened, and he did regain consciousness. My thoughts are that (and again, assume no safety features), if the instructor had not pulled the cord slowing his decent, he would have either died because he would not have regained consciousness in time (something much less than 3,000 feet--like ground zero, or he would have gained consciousness before ground zero (but still so low that it wouldn't have mattered, or 3) he would have regained consciousness and been able to save himself.
It's hard to ask the question since there is a ground zero, so we could assume he didn't start the jump at 12,000 feet but instead 30,000 feet (and never mind any change in velocity given any changes in atmosphere, but instead, let's just pretend no ground zero. How many more feet would he have dropped had the shoot never opened?
bilby
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Roughly speaking, once you have free-fallen for more than about 1,500-2,000 feet, you stop accelerating; your speed as you pass the 3,000 foot mark is pretty much exactly the same if you free fall from 6,000 feet or from 30,000 feet.
No matter how high you start, if your 'chute fails to open you fall no further than if it does not fail to open - either way you keep going until the ground stops you from falling any further; the only question is how hard it hits you when you reach it.
Terminal velocity for a human is about 120-200 miles per hour, depending on orientation; A parachute will slow your descent to about 17 miles per hour.
Assuming a best case, 120 mph 'belly to ground spreadeagle' position in free-fall, you would take 17 seconds to fall 3,000 feet. With your parachute deployed, that same 3,000 foot fall will take about two minutes.
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Before it deployed automatically.
Skydiving seems like an "extreme sport" but the truth is that most people can do it safely.
Statistically speaking you're at more risk of death driving to the drop zone.
Perhaps in the movies, but not in real life as far as I know.
From my experience the instructor is trained to respond to any number of situations. As I understand it, this guy's 'chute would have deployed, but what the instructor did was correctly orient him and manually pull the cord so that the emergency deployment would not be necessary. When you bail out at 12,000 feet you've got about 30 seconds before you arrive at 3,000 feet, so for the instructor to respond to the situation and act as he did was very impressive, but that's what he's trained to do.
Cycad
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What second safety feature is that ?
A student will jump with a primary canopy and a secondary canopy (like everybody) The second canopy will be connected to an AAD (automatic activation device) usually a cypres.
This device will automatically open the RESERVE chute at a certain attitude provided the skydiver is falling faster than he should be (in other words, it opens in case you forget to open your parachute)
As far as I know, there is no second safety feature.
If AFF instructor didnt open the canopy, the AAD would have done so probably around 1500 feet or so.
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Make that attitude an altitude
fast
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We're getting there. Let's try it another way. The cord was pulled at point A. He regained consciousness at point B. He therefore fell only X feet. 6,000 feet between the points?
Giving that he was unconscious for t amount of time between the points, it may not be too unreasonable (assuming no ground zero) that he would have remained unconscious for the same amount of time had the cord not pulled.
However, even though the time of his being unconscious wouldn't have changed, the distance he would have fallen had the cord not been pulled would have been much longer in terms of of the number of feet he fell.
So, let's compare how many feet he did fall between the two points (in distance) to the amount of distance in feet he would have fallen (using point A as a starting point--since that's when the cord was pulled) had the cord not been pulled.
I'm speculating he would have fallen 7 times further than he did. 42,000 feet?
Giving that he was unconscious for t amount of time between the points, it may not be too unreasonable (assuming no ground zero) that he would have remained unconscious for the same amount of time had the cord not pulled.
However, even though the time of his being unconscious wouldn't have changed, the distance he would have fallen had the cord not been pulled would have been much longer in terms of of the number of feet he fell.
So, let's compare how many feet he did fall between the two points (in distance) to the amount of distance in feet he would have fallen (using point A as a starting point--since that's when the cord was pulled) had the cord not been pulled.
I'm speculating he would have fallen 7 times further than he did. 42,000 feet?
fast
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The second canopy--opening at 700 feet
What second safety feature is that ?
A student will jump with a primary canopy and a secondary canopy (like everybody) The second canopy will be connected to an AAD (automatic activation device) usually a cypres.
This device will automatically open the RESERVE chute at a certain attitude provided the skydiver is falling faster than he should be (in other words, it opens in case you forget to open your parachute)
As far as I know, there is no second safety feature.
If AFF instructor didnt open the canopy, the AAD would have done so probably around 1500 feet or so.
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Make that attitude an altitude
Auto-deployment isn't something every chute has.
If he seized at 9k and recovered at 3k then he wouldn't have recovered in time if the instructor hadn't pulled the ripcord.
Keith&Co.
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That would depend on what caused the seizure, wouldn't it? Maybe the chute holding him upright was critical to the recovery?
fast
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That occurred to me, but I thought possibly I was being presumptive (assumptive?), but then again, I didn't see how I could win for losing. Keeping it simple, I'm just assuming (presuming?) an equal elapsed time of unconsciousness. It seems he would have hit the ground ... .