Darren Bull
Date: December 21, 2009 Nationality: English
Object Type: Earth
Location: Murrenfluh (Via Ferrata/ Mighty Penis), Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
COD: Strike (Canopy)
Clothes / Suit: Wingsuit

Description:
Darren was ready for a wingsuit jump from the Pro BASE Race ramp at Murrenfluh (Via Ferrata/ Mighty Penis). It was wintertime and therefore very icy on the exit point. He had a solid stance as he was wearing crampons which is typical there in the winter. As he intended to leap off he bent forward shifting his weight forward but the crampons were only attached to the center of the shoe sole. As he pushed off, all his weight was on the leather bootie portion of the wingsuit and his left leg slipped backwards.

The slip resulted in a left banked head-down exit which led into over-rotation into an uncontrolled drop. After about 4 seconds Darren did an emergency pull inside the overhung section of the cliff but the opening ended unlucky in an off-heading facing the wall. Nobody can say for sure if he had an additional problem like a line twist at that point.

Almost right after the canopy opened Darren had a cliff strike from which he never recovered. He slipped along the icy cliff face another 400m until he reached the talus with no life signs anymore. The canopy was ripped into pieces no longer able to suspend a person.

Darren had unfortunately left his helmet in his hotel so his head had been unprotected during the cliff strike. This may have caused an instant unconsciousness which kept him from fighting to clear the off heading.

Second he was wearing a tight wingsuit and the cliff strike appeared 1-2 seconds after canopy inflation. Obviously this was not enough time to clear the arms completely to react adequate on the canopy's bad heading. It's not know if he released his arm wings by the emergency handles during the rotating drop. This shows in some way tragic how small the margin of an uncontrolled wingsuit exit is, even more when it is totally by surprise.

Footwear is important for both landing as well as approach. Different crampons may have kept this unfortunate accident from occurring.

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