1998 South Pole jump

[Frodo 0]

NPR Story

The story is about 7 years old now, but I dont remember seeing a discussion of it here (and the search didn't turn up anything related) ... There are details that I'm wondering about.

First, what do you think of the guy's account on what happened?
He sounds pretty confident in their planning, he was very satisfied with their preparation and all. I'm sure they realized a south pole jump is not your typical skydive in many ways. And sure they knew about difficulties of visually judging your altitude in an area such as Antarctica. But in that case how could some of them choose not to have an AAD on this jump?

The guy also says that when he realized the group got too low, he went for his reseve. I guess that's a good thing to do, if you can overcome your normal reflex of reaching back to pull your main. But later he praises AADs and says "it saved my life". So which one was it - did he himself or the AAD save his life?

Is it common for people realizing they're too low to consciously choose to pull the reserve, in hopes of a faster opening (or to avoid a two-out)?

One more: since the landing area was 9,000 ft MSL, is there a problem in using the AAD? Can this large an altitude correction be set on the Cypres?

[mr2mk1g 10]

EDIT

The Cypres can be adjusted for an altitude difference between your take off and landing altitudes, however the manual states that the max adjustment you can make is plus or minus 1500ft or 500m.

[riggerrob 643]

Their biggest problem was hypoxia.
Since the landing area was 9,000' MSL, they cruised at 15,000' MSL for long enough that hypoxia made them stupid.
The best account was written by the Scandanavian tandem instructor who was on the same load and lived because he pulled at a reasonable altitude.

[JohnMitchell 16]

[replyOne more: since the landing area was 9,000 ft MSL, is there a problem in using the AAD? Can this large an altitude correction be set on the Cypres?

[feuergnom 29]

couldn't hear the stream but this has to be the incident with some jumpers from austria involved

if it is this one - they didn't care to take oxygen with them, got hypoxia and went straight in

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[feuergnom 29]

do you have any link to the story?

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[obelixtim 150]

Didn't they fly to the Pole from somewhere else, a long way away, hence the hypoxia, and there was quite a different elevation between airfield and LZ......hence possible confusion over AAD's.....

This incident was avoidable....the planning was deficient.......and the potential problems well known....no excuse for it....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[JohnMitchell 16]

I don't know, but I did know Steve Muholland, who got killed, and know that he did not have an AAD.

I thought that they flew right from the airstrip there at the South Pole.

[PalletMan 0]

Here's a transcript of the NPR story:

http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/national_public_radio.htm

The site it was found on:

http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/south_pole_skydive.htm

--Art

Sky-div'ing (ski'div'ing) n. A modern sport that involves parties, bragging, sexual excesses, the imbibing of large quantities of beer, and, on rare occasions, parachuting from aircraft.

[obelixtim 150]

I remember the incident from when it happened.......but not all the details.......I thought they'd flown from somewhere else....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[PalletMan 0]

Quote

Didn't they fly to the Pole from somewhere else, a long way away, hence the hypoxia, and there was quite a different elevation between airfield and LZ......hence possible confusion over AAD's.....

From the links I just posted:

Quote

Following a six-hour flight from Antarctica's Patriot Hills field site, the team's chartered Twin Otter touched down at 7 a.m. near the Amundsen-Scott Station, where they posed for obligatory thumbs-up snapshots and took off again.

Edit to add from the Maxim article:

Quote

We spent an hour and a half at the station checking on another's equipment

--Art

Sky-div'ing (ski'div'ing) n. A modern sport that involves parties, bragging, sexual excesses, the imbibing of large quantities of beer, and, on rare occasions, parachuting from aircraft.

[PalletMan 0]

Quote

The guy also says that when he realized the group got too low, he went for his reseve. I guess that's a good thing to do, if you can overcome your normal reflex of reaching back to pull your main. But later he praises AADs and says "it saved my life". So which one was it - did he himself or the AAD save his life?

From the links I just posted:

Quote

Kearns realized they'd already dropped below 2,000 feet, so he tracked away and reached for his rip cord. As he did, his automatic activation device (AAD), an altitude sensor that triggers the reserve canopy at 750 feet, deployed the chute.

--Art

Sky-div'ing (ski'div'ing) n. A modern sport that involves parties, bragging, sexual excesses, the imbibing of large quantities of beer, and, on rare occasions, parachuting from aircraft.

[obelixtim 150]

Ah...right...I knew they'd flown from Patriot....just couldn't remember the bit about them landing....however, the effects of hypoxia from the long flight (if they were hypoxic from it) were probably still a factor, especially with the pole at 9 grand.....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[cloudseeker2001 0]

Quote

Here's a transcript of the NPR story:

http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/national_public_radio.htm

The site it was found on:

http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/south_pole_skydive.htm

--Art

Am I the only one who read that entire article in my head using Bob Edwards voice?

"Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance,
others mean and rueful of the western dream"

[Frodo 0]

Quote

Am I the only one who read that entire article in my head using Bob Edwards voice?

Same here yeah his voice and manner of speaking are unique.
Too bad he stopped doing the Morning edition a while ago.

[Avion 0]

The transcript said that they did have supplemental oxygen. So, what happened? Visual references useless. All they had to depend on were altimeters, and is seems that they ignored them until the last moment.

Loss of altitude awareness.

Good post.

[Frodo 0]

Quote

Here's a transcript of the NPR story:

http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/national_public_radio.htm

The site it was found on:

http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/south_pole_skydive.htm

--Art

Thanks for the links. I was especially impressed with the woman's account of the incident in the Antarctic Sun. It's rare to see someone outside of the skydiving community trying in all honesty to understand the motivations, etc. Especially when strangers come to the place that you call home, and their actions result in three deaths and totally knock you out of your normal mental state and working routine.
But then again, she is not a whuffo, she used to jump in the past. In any case it was nice to know there are very open-minded people out there.

[feuergnom 29]

just for the record: the name of the austrian jumper was hans resak
he was - for various reasons - well known around vienna

thanks for the transcript-link

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[JohnMitchell 16]

Quote

The transcript said that they did have supplemental oxygen. So, what happened? Visual references useless. All they had to depend on were altimeters, and is seems that they ignored them until the last moment.

Loss of altitude awareness.

Good post.

My wife and I made some 4 way jumps with Steve a few weeks before he headed off to the South Pole. We were jumping from 13000+. The South Pole jump was from 8000. That's a easy way to lose track of time.

[skydiverek 63]

Quote

The transcript said that they did have supplemental oxygen. So, what happened?

They did have a supplemental oxygen, but chose not to use it (at least some of them). That was written in skydiving magazine shortly after the accident. There was no bailout oxygen. Only one had Cypres, not all had visual or audible altimeters...

[skydiverek 63]

The skydivers were found 3 to 5 feet deep in the ice/snow (Maxim article). I also heard that one guy died because he suffocated, not from impact - is this true???

[murps2000 86]

The skydivers were found 3 to 5 feet deep in the ice/snow (Maxim article). I also heard that one guy died because he suffocated, not from impact - is this true???


120mph to 0mph in 3-5 feet? Pretty abrupt deceleration, but I'm sure he could have survived till he suffocated if Maxim said so.

[skydiverek 63]

Quote

120mph to 0mph in 3-5 feet? Pretty abrupt deceleration, but I'm sure he could have survived till he suffocated if Maxim said so.

I heard it from someone, not from Maxim. Also, they mjst have been going faster than 120mph - landing zone was 9,000ft above sea level.

BTW, these articles explain pretty well what happened: http://www.michael-s-kearns.com/south_pole_skydive.htm