David Wall

David Wall

BFL#:
394 (12th of the year)
Name: David Wall
Date: September 10th, 2020
Nationality: American
Location: Sputnik - Walenstadt, Switzerland
Object Type: Earth
COD: Unknown
Clothes / Suit: Wingsuit Colugo 3
Gear / Parachute: Crux - Hayduke
Age: 37
Skydive Experience: 1077
BASE Jumps: 440
WS BASE Experience: Unknown - first WSBJ was 4/14/18.
Years/Seasons in Base: 4 Seasons
Time of day: Unknown
Causal factors: Unknown
Exit Altitude: 1595 m (5230 ft)
Conditions: Great conditions with thermic conditions
Wind on exit: light
Description:

Written Report FATALITY REPORT DAVID WALL 10.9.2020 Written 15.9.2020 by Chris McDougall
Sex: Male
Age: 37
Nationality: American
Equipment: Wingsuit: Colugo 3
Container: Crux
Canopy: Hayduke

This fatality is written by the speculation of the following: • Verbal flight line mentioned to girlfriend before the jump
• Inspection of wingsuit, container & canopy at police station after retrieval
• Review of a photo of the body and gear where he came to rest
• Opinion of expert local jumper
• Weather conditions on the day.
• Personal inspection of the place where he came to rest
• Flying style of the jumper in the lead months leading up to the jump.
Video from tourist from another part of the mountain.

The lead up to the jump…. David’s Base jumping journey started when he saw a video of sputnik a few years previous so for him to come here and realise his dream was a big deal that he took seriously.
He had done his first jump here the previous day without incident in which he took a similar line but went around the outside of the pillars.
David was super fit, super heathy, had a strong, clear mindset and was not hindered by drugs, alcohol or fatigue
The weather on this day was great for jumping with good lift.
David was not pushing to go jumping on this day and was happy to go paragliding with his girlfriend but she was happy for him to go for a jump in the morning which he then chose to do.

Verbal flight line mentioned to girlfriend before the jump He said he will not be trying to fly through the crack but to take the high left line and then head to the far left to fly over the ‘trench line,’ a common line for experienced jumpers. He had promised to take it easy and come back another time after gathering data and more information on the different flight lines before getting closer to the terrain.

Inspection of wingsuit, container & canopy at police station after retrieval Review of a photo of the body and gear where he came to rest After inspection of the gear which included the wingsuit, container, pilot chute and canopy as well as photo of his body still in all gear it was determined that he died without making an attempt to
open his parachute. I did not inspect his helmet but was told of damage to the helmet. It was a full face but not CE rated.
It is unclear when his parachute came out but there was sliding dirt marks on both sides of his wingsuit and the inside of his container indicating that it was forced out after a heavy impact.
The bottom closing loop was missing completely. The top closing loop was as normal.
The left side of his canopy had a number of small holes and his pilot chute also had some small tears / holes. The right side of his wingsuit was ripped severely from the shoulder area. Apart from a major head injury, all other external injuries were on his right side.
The police photo indicates that his canopy was never deployed and was still in a semi packed state right by him.
Both his brakes were un-stowed but this could either be from the police and rescue teams or from the impact. I do not think any attempt was made to fly or there was enough canopy out to even be able to fly.

Opinion of expert local jumper and weather conditions on the day. After talking to a local and expert jumper who was flying on that day he said that the conditions were amazing and that it was possible to fly the terrain in the left line.
After reviewing the tourists video the weather looked near perfect with some light thermic wind from the edge of the cliff where the video was taken as well as light fluffy cloud indicating nice thermals.

Personal inspection of the place where he came to rest Two days after the accident and at the families request 6 of us went to try to locate the two cameras he was wearing during his jump. We went to the exact site where David came to rest using the pin location from the police. It was clear that this was not the first point of impact. It was a small rocky area on a 45 degree slope surrounded by various vegetation directly below a very steep and narrow gully which was unreachable without climbing equipment or a mountain guide.
It is my belief that he tumbled down gully before he came to rest.
We were unable to find the cameras.

Flying style of the jumper in the lead month leading up to the jump Davids flying style was aggressive and at the top end of proximity wingsuit flying in the month leading up to the accident. He was though, extremely meticulous in his training both on and off the mountain. He would fly the same line repetitively working closer to the terrain. He would analyse his videos and fly sight data on every single jump. But he was on the limit of flying in which some other jumpers have made mention that this style of flying was not sustainable.

Video from tourist from another part of the mountain The most conclusive outcome of this accident came from a tourist video from another part of the mountain. Whilst not completely clear and from far away, when zoomed in you can see him flying to the second to last pinnacle, not around the outer pinnacle. You do not see him hit anything but at that moment before the tumble or steep dive you hear the shock in the voices of the 2 people doing the video.

At the 69th & 70th frames from the end of the video you see what could be a wingsuit far lower down and headed away form the pinnacle. This could also just be a bug as there is a similar image in the last 2 frames of the video also.

Speculative Conclusion: David was flying with near to max glide in thermic conditions to fly over the pinnacle so he could fly another line to the far left.
He either….
1. Clipped a tree and tumbled to the ground
2. Stalled out with the low air speed and thermic conditions and possible wind rotors close to the pinnacles.
3. Clipped a tree and then dove down hard with a sharp right turn
4. Realised very late he wasn’t going to clear the pinnacle and performed a very sharp right turn and dive into which he impacted and or tumbled to his resting place.

Personal note: David was living on the floor below us for the last few months and we were basically house mates. We hung out every single day. We paraglided together, we base jumped together many times and i got to know him quite well, including his aggressive flying style in a wingsuit. He was very confident and he flew aggressively but he also trained very hard and analysed his data and video after each jump. Even though on social media he may have come across a certain way, he actually had no ego other than how stoked he was personally with the flying he was achieving for himself. I would be the first to call him out on this if I thought otherwise. He was full of awesome crazy ideas but would always listen and take note of my more cautious approach to reality which I appreciated.
I was very upset with him after hearing the news of the accident because I thought that he would’ve disregarded all his own rules and just went for it and lived in the moment after a possible good exit and good lift during flight, something which I would’ve done also. But after reviewing the footage from the tourists it appears that he just went for a super high line to the left and tried to get over the top of the second to last pillar, appearing to fly in a slower gliding motion to make it over although it is hard to confirm because of the perspective of the camera angle.
Whilst his flying style was aggressive, this is not what resulted in his death as initially thought.
Whilst he made a mistake, he held true to his word to his girlfriend and attempted what he said he was going to do.
He was one of the most full on humans I have ever met and the most honest, true and virtuous person I have ever met who’s ultimate dream was to help change and save the world. I was proud to call him my friend.
Douggs

Photos and Descriptions
1. Flight past outer pinnacle the day before

2. Frame just before potential impact
3. Exit point, first frame of him being seen in flight and potential tumble point
4. Approximate flight line and final resting place
5. Potential gully where he tumbled and final resting place.
6. 69 frames before end of video where he is possibly seen again but could also be an insect
7. 70 frames before end of video where he is possibly seen again but could also be an insect






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