Date: December 26, 2015
Nationality: French
Object Type: Earth
Location: Le Brevent, France
COD: Impact
Clothes / Suit: Wingsuit

Description:

On December 26 at around 3:30pm Philippe Jean attempted to fly line 7 from the Brévent, one of the most western gullies accessible by wingsuit. There is a particularly nice entrance at the top of the line with a tree gate and a grassy slope that provides a visually stunning entrance but can be challenging to access. After reviewing video from Philippe Jeans recovered camera, we know he impacted this grassy slope (altitude ~ 2000m) after reaching to make this point, stalled and lost flight.

I'd like to preface my thoughts by saying, if family and friends of Philippe Jean are reading, that I make the following comments with the intention of sharing a potential lesson with my fellow wingsuit BASE jumpers in an attempt to save lives. It is not my intention to place blame or criticism. We participate in a sport that is still in its infancy and every lesson is extremely valuable to the evolution of our sport. That being said,


The lessons learned here are not new, but perhaps an additional warning to others as more and more people will come to fly their wingsuits at the Brévent.

There are four main factors that I believe are worth mentioning:

- After 3:30pm, at this time of year, line 7 is in shadow with radiational cooling up slope causing katabatic flow, making an already challenging flight to that location much more difficult.

- Philippe Jean was part of a two way. The other jumper exited first and took a very wide right turn while flying conservatively over open terrain, as this was his first time flying so far west. Philippe Jean exited immediately after, looked briefly at the first jumper, passed him and went straight for his line. I believe Philippe Jean held this other jumper in high regards, and he had told me earlier that day that he was excited to show him line 7.

- Philippe Jean was on the phone with a third person via a Bluetooth communicator. I have not spoken to the person who was on the other end of that conversation, and don't know the level of communication that was going on, but we all know talking and flying is challenging and potentially distracting.

- Philippe Jean had only flown this line a few times and had not familiarized himself with the visually changing waypoints/landmarks. This was compounded with addition of snow to the terrain; simply, the mountain does not look the same when it has snow on it. We flew this line together once two days before, and he had mentioned after that he was unsure where he was before making the entrance. When we had jumped together I had briefed him at the mid station on how I count three ridges, and look for a rock outcropping on my left and judge my speed and position in reference to that point. Unfortunately we did not discuss how or when we would abort if things did not go as planned.

Philippe Jean sent me a text at 3:25 saying they would jump in the next 5 minutes as I was waiting for two jumpers at the landing area. We had shuttled cars that morning, and I had opted out of the last jump of the day. After the second jumper landed we attempted to call Philippe Jean on the phone. Unsuccessful, we quickly got in my car, checked and alternate landing area, then drove to the PGHM (Heli mountain rescue) to report him missing. After a brief search by the Heli team, Philippe Jean was located.

Philippe Jean will be missed by many in the jumping, alpine climbing, and High Mountain Military School communities. He had never ending energy, excitement and an infectious enthusiasm for wingsuit BASE jumping. I spent a lot of time with him during the last week of his life and I can say that he fit more adventure, stoke and high fives in that time than some do in a lifetime.

---

The List:
BASE Fatality List

*** Please send updates, additions, corrections, or comments to: bfl@baselogic.com, or please contact us.

Media Advisory - This information is proprietary and only for the internal use of the BASE jumping community.
You do not have permission to quote anything presented herein without consent.

In the interest of fairness and accuracy this List will present an inaccurate view when not taken in context. These listed events represent fatalities that have occurred over a period of time spanning 1981 to the present.

This List is not 100% accurate.
These reports change as new information becomes available.
Fatalities are not necessarily in order of their occurrence.

---

BLiNC Magazine strongly encourages readers to comment on its content. Read the Disclaimer and the policy on Site Naming. Posting a comment releases it in the Public Domain. These comments will be moderated. If you see inappropriate content, please notify the administrator
All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author. All images and words are protected by U.S. and International Copyright laws. Copyright 1994-2011