I know this happened almost a month ago, but I just found this site today, and posted this in the incident section. I'll repost it here because this area probably gets more traffic. Anyway, if you read it in the incident section, please disregard. I just figured you guys would like a first hand account of some of what went on that day.
Quote: Hey guys, I just stumbled across this site, and did a search for this incident. I know I'm a FNG, but I've made a few (10) recreational jumps in the past, and would love to get back into the sport someday. Sorry to dig this thread back up, but I wanted to see if this incident had been heard about because I didn't see it in the news section. Anyway, I figured I could give some insight to this incident that isn't given in the press releases. I work as a Paramedic in Rockingham, and was working on our Bike team at the race when this incident happened. When I knew there were going to be problems, my partner and I were able to position our bikes near the spot where a couple of the guys landed. I have read all the posts on this, and a lot of you have criticized them for jumping. I can honestly say that I myself was thinking, "Are they really gonna jump in this wind?!" when the helecopter was on jump run. You see, the wind was steady all day long at 15-30mph with gusts of 50mph. This is straight from the Weather Channel. I don't know exactly what it was at the exact time of the jump, but I do know that it was faster than anything I would jump in. I spoke with one of the guys that wasn't injured about the wind after the jump and questioned what the max speed they could jump was. He said they could jump in 18 knot winds, which IIRC translates to roughly 21mph. He said they were radioed from the ground that the wind was 8 knots, but when they jumped, they could tell it was much faster than 8 knots. Even still, he said the wind wasn't the problem, but instead the turbulence was. He said it collapsed 3 cells of one guys chute. Now, hindsight is 20/20, but from what I learned about the wind and turbulence, it can affect your flight several hundred feet away from the object causing it, ie trees etc. Well, picture the race track, and you see one big bowl. That thing causes wind patterns that are all kinds of crazy. I'm at that track working various things several times each month, and I can tell you first hand that you can have a very slight breeze outside the track, but inside, the breeze can be several mph, and swirrling all different directions. As far as the wind not being the problem, I don't see how that could be true because as these guys turned final, the wind was blowing so hard it was carrying them backwards, and not slowly at that. Basically they were along for the ride. That's when I really knew there was going to be problems, and positioned myself accordingly. I was right there when the first one bounced off one trailer, then hit another and fell to the ground. He sustained a couple cuts on his face, and bruised or cracked ribs where he hit the corner of the other trailer. He is the one that was transported by one of our ground units to FirstHealth Moore Regional in Pinehurst to a plastic surgeon. The second one that I went to after our other medics got on scene was the one that was flown out. Basically, what happened to this guy was, he came in backwards, and landed on a trailer, but was pulled off by the wind. He then fell to the ground, and hit his head on a wooden box, knocking him unconscious. He was semi-conscious when I got to him. I placed him on oxygen as one of our transport units arrived. I radioed the flight team from CMC, who was already there on standby, and told them to get the bird ready to fly this guy out. I had to cut his container off his back so we could place him in full spinal precautions. He was transported to the helicopter, and flown to CMC in Charlotte. I believe they ruled his injury as a concussion. As far as the one that fell between Dale Jr's trailer, he was extremely lucky, as he landed just on the other side of a wrought iron fence with the spikes on top. He came very close to getting impaled. If I'm not mistaken also, the one that made the hard landing on the pavement is the one that broke his ankle. He, and I believe the other guy that nearly got impaled were transported by one of our ground units to Womak military hospital in Fayetteville.
So, basically the wind was probably too fast to make the jump. They were given bad info from the ground. The wind does all kind of crazy stuff inside the track, especially near the ground. I can only imagine trying to land into the wind, and getting pushed backwards towards all the trailers and other obstacles. These guys did a good job of not getting hurt any worse than they were. Just thought you guys would appreciate a little first hand information from somebody that was there and saw it happen.
The following is something I posted on another forum I frequent, so the it is just pasted from this thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=244592&highlight=Work with a link to the pictures of the incident.
You can see this link to the pictures at http://foxsports.lycos.com/named/Index/Auto. Scroll down to where it says Photo Central on the right side. Click the one labled Skydivers Crash. There are 7 different photos. The first photo shows the one we airlifted to Charlotte as he is trying to land (UPDATED: I just noticed that the first pic shows a guy wearing a camera setup on his helmet, so this isn't the one we airlifted to CMC. He wasn't wearing a helmet) Note that he is actually being blown backwards. The second photo shows one of the skydivers that nearly got impaled on a fence, which you see right beside him. He ended up with a minor back injury and was transported to Womak Military hospital in Fayetteville, NC. He is the skydiver also shown in photo 7 just before landing (you can clearly see how close he came to getting impaled, since he actually landed on the other side of it). The third photo shows the guy from the first photo, as we are taking him to the helicopter. I'm blocked in that picture, but you can see my partner for that day wearing the bicycle helmet and dayglo yellow jacket. The guy in the 4th photo is getting dragged down the track as an official tries to deflate his chute. I believe he broke an ankle and wrist. Not really sure if that is the one or not, as I wasn't involved in his treatment. Not sure if the guy in the 5th photo was injured or not. He might be the one that broke his ankle and wrist. The 6th photo just shows them as a group after jumping. The 7th is the one from the 2nd photo. You can see him almost landing on the fence. He actually came down on the other side, in between two car haulers. He was extremely lucky that he missed the fence.
Oh, well, just thought you guys might like to see some of the pics. I hate I was blocked out from that one. Oh well, such is life.
Blue Skies,
Mike
