Thomas Klingler
BFL# 422 (3rd of the year)
Name: Thomas Klingler
Date: 1 March 2022
Nationality: German
Location: High Ultimate (with ramp), Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Object Type: Earth
COD: bad exit, impact
Clothes / Suit: PF Onesie Power
Gear / Parachute: Adrenalin base Container, Atair OSP2
Age: 48
Skydive Experience: 6 years, 400 jumps
BASE Jumps: 380
Jumps on suit: 50 skydives,BASE unknown
Years/Seasons in Base: started 2019
Time of day: 8:50 AM
Other factors: none
Exit Altitude: 720 meters
Conditions: good conditions, ramp was clear and not slippery. No mud on the trail to the exit.
Wind on exit: very light
Description:
Thomas was current, experienced with his suit and had at least 35 jumps off High Ultimate. The day before he did 3 jumps of HU and one of High Nose and was happy with his results. On this jump, he was first on a two-way with a wingsuiter. He did a one-step exit as usual, had an average push, slightly unstable. He brought his arms back very soon, legs slightly bent which caused an over rotation/scorpion. German corrected his angle quickly to a fully extended but flat tracking position.
The suit started to pressurize but no forward movement and he clipped the very last part of the ledge with his lower legs. Only 20cm were missing to clear it into clean airspace. This caused a big momentum and sent him into a violent unstable rotation. He went back into tracking position but was probably disoriented or in shock and impacted the wall with nothing out. Canopy came out on impact. Coroner said Thomas was dead immediately.
What's to take away from this incident:
1) If Thomas had done a running exit instead of a slower one-step exit, he might have had enough forward momentum to clear the talus even with his scorpion exit.
2) Leaving Hands in front for longer time when in Scorpion position, would probably help him to not rotate to the side and give him much faster transition into the track position, which would let him to out track the ledge. The correction into a flat angle was the cause for clipping the talus. Staying in head down until passing the talus might have saved him from clipping his feet.
3) Between clipping feet and impact 6 seconds passed. A panic pull might have saved his life.
4) One more thing to add, it was the first day when you cant jump after 9am because of paragliders in the area, so people want to jump before 9am and at this time I think the conditions are the worst, you don't have any lift. Same day Ii did one jump around 7.50am and I had the feeling that after exit I was closer to the wall than usually.
Thomas had a slow and steady progression in the sport. He put in the work and never tried to cut any corners. He asked questions and took advise from more experience jumpers. Every time he had a new exit in mind he talked about it, got different opinions and made sure he was ready for it. All in all he was a safe and well thought jumper.
He felt comfortable jumping the ramp after jumping it a few times. He never had any close calls, his push was always enough and his exits where nice and stable...but maybe this was part of the problem. Maybe he felt a bit too comfortable in the end. If you repeat such a difficult jump so many times without problems it's very easy to loose the respect for it and maybe this played a part in his accident. I think many of us can relate to this.High Ultimate with the ramp is still a very difficult jump that doesn't forgive any mistakes.
You still need a good push and good exit to clear the ledge. Every jumper, especially new ones, should be aware of that. Thomas was a great guy, always friendly and caring about everyone. He always had a huge smile on his face. His positive energy and attitude touched everyone who met him. It was impossible not to have a good time and not to laugh when he was around. He will be missed.
Lauterbrunnen BE – Basejumper prallt in Felswand und stürzt unkontrolliert in die Tiefe - 20 Minuten
Switzerland: BASE jumper from Germany falls to his death in the Lauterbrunnen valley - The Limited Times (newsrnd.com)
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