If we are talking about the Skydive Deland incident, Then there are a
LOT of bits of misinformation that need to be tweaked here in these
first two posts.

The jumper, Gus Wing, was a veteran jumper. He and the Otter pilot are
both reputed to be saftey-freaks.

The jumper was serving as a photographer for a student/tandem jump and
was reportedly getting in position to film the student's landing. He was
under canopy (NOT in freefall) and the accident occured at either 600 or
1000 ft (depending on what version of the story). (Very few people would
DARE freefall at 600 ft AGL, I speculate)

The Otter Checklists I've seen call out a landing speed of 90 kts, and
approach speeds anywhere from 100-140 knots depending on phase of
approach. The story is that his legs were hit by the leading edge of the
otter, severing them partially or totally. The jumper was able to land,
but died at the hospital.

Those bits were gleaned from Usenet, CNN, Local media and Dropzone.com.
I am not a jumper and live over 800 miles away and have no personal
connection to any of this.

The rest is my opinion and speculation.

Now.. from a medical standpoint, A traumatic amputation usually mangles
things in the process.. torn blood vessels dont have as much of a
tendency to "self seal" as do tranversely CUT ones (like cutting a
vessel with a razor).. and the Femoral (and further down, the Popliteal)
arteries are large vessels that can flow a lot of volume. Your heart
can pump your entire blood volume in a minute. If there is a big enough
hole, you really CAN bleed out that fast.

Couple that with torn vessels, mangled legs, the probablility that for
the first minute or two (or maybe longer.. people who jumped from the
same plane reported hearing sirens as they landed.. so help was CLOSE)
the people arriving are NOT trained medical personnel who would KNOW to
apply direct pressure to pressure points (above the injury) to try to
stop the bleeding (rather than trying to stem it with direct pressure at
a mangled injury site).

Couple this again with responding medical personnel only having IV
fluids to try and raise blood pressure.. IV fluids dont carry oxygen..
hemoglobin does.. and right now there are no acceptable blood
substitutes out there (there have been recent trials, but no marketed
product).. all this leaves you with a diminishing chance of survival.

My speculation is that unless Mr. Wing had paradropped into a MASH unit,
he was doomed by his injury, having significantly bled out in the last
minute of his descent. Even if a trained paramedic crew was right there
and on the scene immediately, they would have had a hell of a fight (to
save him) on their hands.

Dave

wrote:

jerry wass wrote:

How did the jumper jump outa that plane, travel upward & forward &

break

his legs on the L.E. of the wing outboard the engine nacele ???
'twas on the OK news last nite, but didn't catch where it happened..


Jump from high altitude and the jump bird pilot will bring the bird
down to pattern altitude at a mind blowing desent rate. A jumper fully
tucked up can catch and even outrun the jump plane under the right
conditions. In this case, it appears that the a/c was already down in
the pattern and the jumper blew through the pattern altitude and struck
the a/c from overhead still in freefall.
Non-survivable injuries unless the EMT's just happened to be right
there when he landed.

Craig C.