What happened
On March 23, 2019, at approximately 12:00 LMT, a qualified skydiver was performing their 258th jump during a skydiving session at Jelenia Góra airport (EPJG). The main parachute opened correctly; however, while the skydiver was executing a maneuver to land at an altitude of approximately 150 meters, the reserve parachute deployed unexpectedly. The skydiver managed to land safely despite the presence of two open canopies, as they maintained control of the main parachute during the descent.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the operation of the automated deployment device attached to the skydiver's parachute system. The device, a MarS type automatic activation device (AAD), was found to be set to "student" mode. The investigation established that the device initiated the deployment of the reserve parachute once the descent rate exceeded the threshold of 20 m/s.
Findings
- The primary cause of the incident was the improper selection of the automatic device mode relative to the size of the main parachute being used for the jump.
- The MarS device functioned as programmed, triggering the reserve deployment when the descent speed reached the preset limit for the "student" setting.