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Azuan Taharudin

BFL#:
398 (1st of the year)

Name: Azuan Taharudin
Date: 1st January, 2021
Nationality: Malaysian
Location: Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga Dan Masyarakat - Putrajaya, Malaysia
Object Type: Building
COD: Line twist/off heading into building
Clothes / Suit: Slick
Gear / Parachute: Black jack 280
Age: 49
Skydive Experience: 300
BASE Jumps: 450
WS BASE Experience: 0
Years/Seasons in Base: 11 years / Seasons
Time of day: 5:35pm (17:35)
Other factors: Unknown
Exit Altitude: 564ft / 171.8 metres
Conditions: Unknown
Wind on exit: Unknown
Description:

This is a basic report about the fatality of Malaysia BASE jumper Azuan Taharudin while BASE jumping off the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) building on 01/01/2021 at about 5:35 pm. Most of the evidence about this jump has been derived from a video of the jump that was shot from the ground. BASE jumpers who were jumping with Azuan at the time have currently declined to give further details.

Azuan is a 49 year old Malaysian BASE jumper. He started BASE jumping in April 2009 and had been BASE jumping for 11.7 years. It is estimated that he had about 350 BASE jumps. Looking at Malaysian BASE event application records, Azuan stated that he did between 18 and 30 BASE jumps per year for most of his years of BASE jumping. He has also completed about 320 skydives over 21 years.
Despite doing a relatively low number of BASE jumps each year, Azuan was one of the more experienced Malaysian BASE jumpers. He was also a mentor to many of the new Malaysian BASE jumpers.
He previously had at least one building strike resulting in injury, which he stated in an article back in 2012.
Azuan’s recent BASE jumping experience is unknown, but it is likely to be minimal during the coronavirus year.

The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development building, or in the Malaysian language Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga Dan Masyarakat (KPWKM), is located in Putrajaya, Malaysia. It is 171.8 metres (564 feet) tall. It should be noted that the building does not have a smooth face like other buildings regularly jumped in Malaysia. It has rows of small horizontal fins protruding out all the way down. It also has a triangular-shaped feature in the centre of the southern face that protrudes out the whole length of the building.

Azuan was part of a group of 5 Malaysian BASE jumpers jumping from the KPWKM building.
They were jumping off the south face of the building near the western corner at about 5:30pm. They are believed to have done standing launches off the rim of the building with freefall delays of 1 to 2 seconds.
Azuan was the last to jump, about 20 seconds after the previous person. This timing was derived from the sound of their openings caught on video from the ground. There is no video of Azuan’s launch or opening as the camera was videoing the previous BASE jumpers flying under canopy and landing, then panning up to the next person when their opening was heard.
Azuan comes into view in the video 0.5 seconds after the sound of his opening. He appears to of had a 90° off heading opening to the left with line twists. His canopy is flying towards the east, parallel with the south face of the building.
He continues to spin under canopy for another half twist and is left facing towards the back of his canopy.
As Azuan appears to be working the issue, the left tail of his canopy appears to be deflected down about 2 seconds after the opening. This initiates his canopy to dive 45° to the left towards the building.
The vision is not clear but he appears to continue to work the issue, or he is possibly spinning up more under canopy as he flies towards the building.
He impacts on the side of the protruding angled centre section of the building 5.5 seconds after opening. This timing is derived from the sound of opening until the sound of glass shattering on impact.
The left tail of his canopy remains deflected down as it slides down the building, and it continues to turn left back towards the west.
As Azuan is falling down the face of the building one of his legs clips a horizontal fin on the protruding centre section of the building about 3.5 seconds after his first impact.
This flips him horizontal onto his back as his canopy continues to dive to the left.
Azuan then gets swung over back towards the west side of the southern face of the building where he impacts hard on another horizontal fin 1.5 seconds later.
Crashing onto the fin temporarily halts his fall as his canopy starts to fall down to his level, with the right side of his canopy falling slightly below his level.
About 0.5 seconds after impacting the horizontal fin he rolls off it.
As Azuan reaches line stretch again his canopy remains a tangled mess with no cell fully open.
With an uninflated canopy he now has a much higher rate of descent.
Azuan impacts the ground 4 seconds later.
From opening until impact with the ground is about 15 seconds.

Azuan still showed signs of life in the ambulance but was declared dead 35 minutes after the accident at 6:10 pm. His injuries included his spine broken in 2 places and leg broken in a few pieces.

Wind During The Jump:
Reports from the ground suggest a streamer at the top of the building indicated there was a light wind blowing from the west or south-west, across the south face of the building, but blowing slightly back towards the building at a shallow angle. There is no vision of the streamer available to validate this. It is also possible that the streamer could be a false indication of wind direction due to the wind wrapping around infrastructure on the roof of the building.

It is currently not known what the BASE jumpers assessment of the wind was when they were at the launch point, or if they threw anything off to assess the wind at opening height.

Video from the ground of the two openings before Azuan jumped gives hints about the possible wind direction on opening. The first 2 BASE jumpers did not appear in the video reviewed.
BASE jumper 3 opened with about a 75° off heading opening to the left and had zero forward speed. His canopy appeared to surge backwards just before the brakes were released.
BASE jumper 4 opened with about a 75° off heading opening to the right. His canopy appeared to accelerate away from the building before he turned left back around to the landing direction towards the east.
As the parachutes are flying towards the east soon after opening, and while they are flying straight into land towards the east, the pilot chutes were angled toward the right side of the canopy towards the north-west.
All these factors suggest the wind may have been blowing from the south-east at opening height.
However, Azuan’s canopy flew with plenty of penetration to the east. If the wind was blowing from the east, he may have been flying in a low-pressure region behind the protruding triangular centre section of the building, or the wind may have been light.

It is currently uncertain if wind played any part in Azuan getting an off heading opening with line twists. With 3 people in a row getting large off heading openings it is quite possible wind was a factor. It is unknown if they were opening in a turbulent zone. If the wind was blowing back towards the building at a shallow angle then it would have played a small part in accelerating Azuan towards the building, but the more significant factor in his acceleration into the building appears to be due to the left tail of his canopy being pulled down.

There are numerous reasons why off heading openings and line twists can happen on a BASE jump, but quite often it is indeterminate and put down as one of the random potential issues that can happen on any BASE jump.
Contributing factors for off heading openings and line twists can include:
• Not symmetrically mounting the pilot chute on the bridle.
• Asymmetrical parachute packing or other packing issues.
• Being unstable or turning during the parachute opening sequence.
• Wind, particularly when it is wrapping around a building.

With no video of Azuan’s launch or opening, it is indeterminate why he got an off heading opening with line twists. With the low number of BASE jumps he does each year it is possible that he was not totally stable during the opening sequence. A combination of any of the factors listed above, plus other unknown factors, could have played a part in producing line twists on this jump.

The 90° off heading opening and line twists did not immediately appear to be life-threatening as his parachute was flying parallel with the building. However, within 2 seconds after opening the actions Azuan made became life-threatening as his canopy turned towards the building. His exact actions are unclear in the video but it is evident that the left steering line is pulled down turning him into the building. It is possible he released, or accidentally knocked off the right steering line, leaving the left one set in its brake position. Or if he also released the left steering line it may have gotten locked on due to line twists. He also may have pulled on lines to turn the canopy to the right, but accidentally pulled on the wrong lines which may have gotten locked on due to him continuing to spin up into line twists. All possibilities are purely speculative. If Azuan had taken a better course of action immediately on opening it is quite possible that he would have landed safely without further incident and still been alive today.

It is fair to assume that Azuan was not tuned to deal with line twists due to the low level of regular BASE jumping and skydiving he did, along with the minimal initial BASE jumping training he received. However, the potential of having a building strike should have been a real possibility in his mind since he has hit a building before. Opening with line twists can be very difficult to deal with and can be disorientating for a second or two. While it is not guaranteed that even a highly experienced BASE jumper could deal with the issue every time, getting better BASE jumping training and regularly practising BASE jumping safety drills to deal with line twists would have much better prepared Azuan to deal with the issue. If a BASE jumper does not learn to turn their parachute immediately on opening then it is only a matter of time before they end up seriously injured or dead.
While it is currently not certain if wind played much of a part in this incident, it is noted that BASE jumpers have often been seen to be very keen to jump into headwinds at events off buildings. Often they use the excuse that the wind is only light, or that it is at a shallow angle and close enough to a crosswind, but this is when building strikes most commonly occur. At one of the more recent events in Malaysia, after everyone had been strongly warned to never jump into a headwind at the event, Malaysian BASE jumpers were still seen to mindlessly step up to jump into a headwind, with a Malaysian launch point coordinator happy to assist them. When people jump into headwinds at events, including wind blowing back in at a shallow angle, it has always been guaranteed that someone hits the building. This even holds true at the massively overhanging KL Tower which should otherwise be almost impossible to hit. The culture at KL Tower in recent years has been particularly bad with everyone from new building management, event safety personnel, and BASE jumpers all seen to be very determined with their actions to ensure building strikes happen while they cling onto strong denial.

The horizontal fins and other features on the KPWKM building makes it a particularly brutal building to hit compared to other buildings that are regularly jumped in Malaysia. It is not just that crashing directly into one of these fins will do great damage to your body. As Azuan’s incident highlights, clipping or crashing onto the top surface will all the of a horizontal fin while you are sliding down the building can have a few extra detrimental effects to follow. If your leg clips a horizontal fin, it may temporarily slow your fall rate, allowing your canopy to dive or unload a little bit. As you fall away from the fin you may get flipped horizontal or head down and spun around, penduluming back under the canopy then back into the building onto another fin. Crashing onto the top surface of a fin may temporarily halt your fall for a fraction of a second, unloading the canopy and allowing it to fall down to your level, or even below you. As you roll off the fin back into line stretch the canopy can become a tangled mess and you can streamer all the way to fatally impact the ground.
Given that building strikes have happened at almost every Malaysian BASE jumping event, even those where reasonable precautions have been taken, it is guaranteed that more building strikes will happen again at the KPWKM building with a high chance of it again resulting in death. The previous person who got hung up on this building was very lucky not to fall to their death in a similar manner.

This is the 3rd building strike at the KPWKM building during 2 small events and a few display jumps off there. The building strike to jump ratio at this building is much higher compared to other buildings in Malaysia. All events at the KPWKM building have been organised by Malaysian BASE jumpers who have a relatively low level of experience. Many of the BASE jumpers invited to the events have had an ultra-low level of BASE jumping experience. The new Malaysian style of organising BASE jumping events with greatly decayed event standards, participant education, and safety precautions is expected to have a high rate of serious injury and death. This style of organising has flourished with some new Malaysian building managers insisting there are no safety issues with BASE jumping despite many accidents happening. They have obliviously gone out of their way to ensure building strikes continue to happen at events. A portion of the international BASE jumping community has also strongly encouraged this.

One thing that stands out in the video is the chilling screams of a female spectator as she is watching Azuan fall to his death. Event organisers and BASE jumpers need to reconsider what they are keen to put on display to the public and what standards and precautions are appropriate for a public display.

It is like déjà vu of the last time novice Malaysian BASE jumpers took over organising BASE jumping events in Malaysia with a death soon following. Most likely this time it will take a few more deaths before Malaysian building managers / Malaysian BASE jumpers let go of their strong denial and realise that the harsh realities of BASE jumping are very real, and that they need to treat BASE jumping with the high level of respect that it demands.




The List:
BASE Fatality List

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