SKYDIVERS how risky is skydiving?

Question

what are skydiving dangers? I wanted to do it so bad but i have seen a couple of very bad videos and now i am soo scared and disgusted...

one guy's parachute failed to open and he crashed and died... the other guy for some reason instead of going downwards he went upwards (towards the sky) and he "dissapeared"... i guess he might have fell later on because the parachute must have gone flat if it goes too far away upwards)... the third had his whole legs cut off because he hit another skydiver.. and so much more....

that is so scary ! how risky is it?

Answer 1

Not as risky as driving a car.  There are on average 30 parachuting related deaths per year, or 1 death per 100,000 jumps.

For comparison, if you drive 10,000 miles per year, your chance of being in a fatal car accident is 1 in 6000.

There are many safeguards that go into a skydiving jumps, including back-up parachutes and parachutes that automatically deploy when you reach a low enough altitude.

Answer 2

there are about 32000 members of the United State Parachute Association.  Every year we make about 2.5 million jumps and about 300,000 tandem jumps.  out of the 2.8 million jumps there are about 30 fatalities.  of these, over 70% are avoidable.  it was a hot shot canopy pilot doing something stupid.  so all in all, i figure there are only 3 to 5 deaths a years that were unavoidable considering the individual had jumped out of an airplane.

As for injuries, many go unreported, and range from bumps and bruises to broken legs.

For what you have seen...

A parachute failing to open.  This will not happen to you.  Tandem rigs and all student rigs are required to have automatic opening devises.  The devises measure altitude and speed.  if you are in free fall to close to the ground the reserve parachute is deployed.

A guy when upwards.... there are two things here, one, if you were watching a canopy open on video it looks like the parachutist goes upwards.  that is only because the camera jumper is still in free fall.  When the parachute opens the camera faller continues to fall at 120+ mph and the parachutist under canopy will appear to be going up.  in really life during canopy deployment the parachutist continues to fall and then flies the canopy to a nice soft landing.  For myself., my canopy takes about 800 feet to open.  This means when I reach back and throw out my pilot chute at 3000 feet above the ground, I have a good parachute over my head at 2200 feet above the ground.

It is possible to get a little bit of lift when flying a parachute from rising air, but there is always a sink hole right after the rise.  It's not possible to be trapped in the sky unless you jumped into a thunderstorm or something like that, which, no skydiver in their right mind would do in the first place.

mid air collisions are a danger when flying with people who don't know how to fly.  jumping solo or in small groups to learn how to fly before going into a big way is key for everyone's safety.

Safety is very important to skydivers.  We all know there is a risk.  If you think about it we are throwing ourselves at the Earth and trying to miss.

Somethings that can help you.  Go to the drop zone and just hang out for a day or two.  ask questions about gear, training and anything else.  Skydivers love to talk about the sport and anyone who takes and interset is pure gold.  

I love the sport.  I hate that it is almost never protrayed in a positive light.  for example, the only two times my home drop zone has been in the news in the last two years is because of two accidents.  but during this time there have been four or five swooping competitions and at least two state record attempts.  no coverage for those.  no coverage of us raising $10,000 for charity... but look, someone got hurt or killed, get the cameras out.  the media is sick and it hurts the sport.  Skydiving is not unique in this, but I feel this more than others because I'm a skydiver.

Skydiving is risky.  you can get hurt of killed.  But we have built the gear and training to make it as safe as possible.  safety is talked about on the ground, on the way to the plane, in the plane, on exit and after the jump.  

I hope you'll give the sport a try.  You'll love it!

Blue Skies!

Answer 3

Yeah skydiving is dangerous but as long as you always put saftey first, you are most likely to do fine. There are more deaths for other common activities than skydiving.

about 42,642 die from car accidents each year,

about 2,580 die from house fires,

about 766 die from plane accidents

about 21 die from skydiving

and only 3 die from amusement parks.

all of these are just in one year!

Answer 4

It is great fun. I've survived 100% of my jumps so far.

Answer 5

Thats why its a rush. If it wasnt dangerous everyone would be doing it. I personally love it. The major risks are storms and wind, not having your parachute open is just scary, but usually they have a backup.

Basejumping is better IMO, but thats me.

Answer 6

Well most of thoughs are really rare anyways... I think you should go anyways I'm gonna do one day when get enough money but I think you should go with another person attached to you to make sure everything is OK on your way down! Just make sure you listen to the direction! ;)

( http://sky-dive.morungexpress.com/ )