American
BFL#: 473 (2nd of the year)
Name: Matt America
Date: 3rd, Feb 2024
Nationality: American
Location: Rio Vista, California
Object Type: Other (water tower)
COD: Impact after exit Clothes/Suit: slick
Gear/Parachute: Direct Bag
Age: 50+
Skydive Experience: Decades of Skydiving
BASE Jumps: 100s of Base jumps
Years/Seasons: since 90's
Time of day: early morning
Other factors: Unknown
Exit Altitude: 130ft (36 metres)
Conditions: Unknown
Wind Description: Unknown
Description:
It’s never easy reporting a brother’s death.
I wasn’t there.
Em called me immediately.
She and Matt had been to the object.
three mornings in a row, the two previous mornings
the weather was not suitable for BASE jumping.
February 3rd the weather was good to go.
Matt packed the parachute himself, 3 days before.
Direct bagging is tricky business.
He and Em inspected the gear, three or six times.
Matt’s been jumping three decades, Em, 3 years.
So, Matt & Em go up on the tower again.
Weather conditions are favourable.
After determining the best place for her to D-bag him,
she found the best place to clip in with the bag.
Matt moved over a bit to give her space.
After exit, he hit the object,
the parachute did not fully deploy.
Impact without parachute from 120 feet equals death.
Wuffo ground crew video is not conclusive but will be further analysed.
Here’s the thing.
There are some steel bars sticking out from the water tower,
brother does not want to hit them.
D-bagging is serious business, gotta be done right.
Prior to that morning’s jump,
Em asked Matt to completely inspect all aspects of the gear,
the pack job, the orientation in the D-bag, etc., etc.
Upon donning the gear, in low light, orientation corrections
were made to “ensure” a successful deployment.
Matt ensured Em that it was “nose forward”.
Ground crew wuffo reported seemingly immediate instability after exit.
Em said it looked like he hit the steel bar and went unstable.
The canopy came out of the D-bag, but snivelled.
Matt hit the tower.
The parachute didn’t work.
Fucking with D-bag objects is serious business.
1/2 a twist gives you a 180, a full twist just gets worse.
After talking to Em and hearing about gear orientation debates on exit,
I believe two things contributed to this death:
Bro hit the fucking steel bar.
Bro adjusted the D-bag 360 degrees off heading prior to exit.
Even if he didn’t hit the bar, you can’t snivel from 120 feet and live.
That little water tower is a tricky bitch.
Matt may have not hit the steel bar,
maybe he just hit the lip.
That’ll fuck your day up too.
A 180 would have maybe seen an open canopy,
but still the result would be fucked.
If a D-bag is twisted 360 degrees, shit just don’t work in 120 feet.
Matt was a brother of mine.
I love you Em.
Avery
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