All sports carry with them a certain amount of risk, but some sports are significantly more dangerous than others. The question is, are sky diving fatalities more common than fatalities in other sports?
Not all sports carry the risk of dying – after all, assuming fitness isn’t an issue, sports like tennis and snooker don’t carry any real risk at all. The sports concerned here are those which generally involve high speeds, such as motor racing, rally driving, and of course skydiving.
What Is The Cause Of Most Sky Diving Fatalities?
The equipment used in skydiving nowadays is state of the art and designed specifically to ensure that accidents are cut to an absolute minimum. All parachutes are checked and packed carefully before each use, and each skydiver has two parachutes – the main chute and a reserve in case the main one doesn’t work for any reason.
Many more sky diving fatalities have been prevented by the use of an automatic activation device or AAD, a gadget that opens the reserve parachute at exactly the right time and height above the ground, assuming you have not already opened the main canopy.
In short, the main cause of sky diving fatalities is pure and simple – human error. As you do more skydives you will gain more and more experience, but this does not necessarily mean you will know all there is to know about the sport.
Weather conditions, wind direction and any number of other factors can affect how you make your way back down to earth. Cross winds and similar issues can send you away from the drop zone you are aiming for, and taking alternative measures to bring yourself back to the drop zone can result in making an error of judgement.
Mid Air Collisions
Some sky diving fatalities are caused by mid air collisions occurring when more than one jumper from the same plane get too close to each other. This sometimes causes their parachutes to become tangled.
It is vitally important that you check your canopy and where other skydivers are in relation to yourself before making any attempt to turn or steer yourself in mid air. When you watch a video of skydivers it’s easy to forget they’re falling at over a hundred miles an hour.
It’s arguable that most sky diving fatalities could be prevented, as they are more commonly caused by humans than by any other factor. Skydiving is an exhilarating sport, but it should always be treated with the respect it deserves.
