What happened
On June 5, 2015, a skydiver performing a jump from an altitude of 3,000 meters experienced an incident near the Krępa Słupska (EPSK) airfield. After the main Silhouette 170 parachute opened at approximately 1,100 meters, the skydiver began executing deep turns. Upon completing the final turn at an altitude of roughly 400 meters, the skydiver noticed that the reserve parachute had deployed. The two canopies were positioned in a biplane configuration, with one canopy trailing behind the other. The landing took place outside the boundaries of the airfield.
The investigation
The investigation established that the skydiver was using a borrowed parachute system for the jump. Prior to the jump, the skydiver failed to verify the operational mode of the Vigil automatic activation device (AAD). The skydiver had assumed the device was set to "PRO" mode; however, the device was actually configured to "STUDENT" mode.
During the final descent maneuver at approximately 400 meters, the skydiver exceeded the descent rate threshold required to trigger the AAD. Because the device was set to the more sensitive "STUDENT" parameters, it initiated the deployment of the reserve parachute.
Findings
- The primary cause of the incident was the exceedance of the descent rate and altitude parameters required to trigger the automatic activation device while flying under the main canopy.
- The skydiver failed to verify the specific configuration of the borrowed AAD prior to the jump.
- The use of the "STUDENT" mode on the Vigil device led to premature activation during high-speed maneuvers.