U.S. Skydiving Fatalities Reach Historic Low In 2024

News Discussion
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2024 marked a milestone for U.S. skydiving safety, as civilian skydiving fatalities dropped to an annual record low of nine deaths.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/u-s-skydiving-fatalities-reach-historic-low-in-2024
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Keep those numbers falling…no pun intended.

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“Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft is not a natural act…”. Heartbreak Ridge

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But it sure is a lot of fun!

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Causes would be of fundamental interest.

The only one I know of was between Abbotsford and Mission BC when a jumper was off course enough to get chute caught on a train that dragged her across ground. I gather that jump zone was closed after that.

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Reasons?

  • Over the past 30 years, more adoption of Automatic Activation Devices for the reserve canopy; almost everyone uses them now. They used to be just for newbies, but anyone can screw up or get into a collision that knocks them out.
  • Generally higher opening altitudes used as the culture changed and parachutes became more high performance, making malfunctions more dangerous unless altitudes were increased. Everyone gets more time to deal with things when crap happens. (More use of turbine aircraft also means more top end altitude, making it easier to give up a little freefall at the bottom end)
  • But for decades the emergence of higher performance canopies (eg speeds like 50 mph, 1800 fpm descent for an experienced jumper) added landing fatalities, that have only gone down in the recent decade as more advanced training has become available to jumpers on an ongoing basis (and not just as students).
    That’s the best I can do as a very rough explanation, as a jumper with 4000 jumps.
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