Video released by Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau on Thursday shows the harrowing moment a skydiver’s parachute got stuck in the back of a plane before jumping off in September.
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report released with the video said the skydiver, identified in the report as P1, managed to disentangle himself using a special tool called a hook knife and landed with minor injuries.
“Although not a regulatory requirement, carrying a hook knife can be life-saving if a reserve parachute deploys prematurely,” ATSB Chief Director Angus Mitchell said in the agency’s press release.
The ATSB report said the skydiver, along with 16 other paratroopers, was about 15,000 feet above Queensland when the accident occurred. As the skydiver was about to jump from the plane, the handle of his spare parachute “caught on the wing flap and spun.”
The parachute quickly inflated, dragging the skydiver backwards and sending the parachutist next to him into a “free fall,” the report said.
An orange parachute became entangled in the plane’s tail, and “P1 was then suspended below the horizontal stabilizer,” the report continues.
“The pilot recalled feeling as if the aircraft suddenly pitched up and observed a rapid decrease in airspeed,” Mitchell said in an ATSB press release.
The pilot initially believed the plane had stalled, Mitchell continued. “But when we were told there was a skydiver hanging from the horizontal stabilizer, we reduced power again.”
Worried that the plane would crash, the pilot tried hard to regain full control of the plane. One of the crew members on board ordered the other parachutists to descend to safety, and along with the other two, 13 people jumped off and watched as the trapped skydivers escaped.
Meanwhile, the trapped skydiver began cutting the reserve parachute line with a hook knife. It took the skydiver just under a minute to cut the 11 cords, the report said, and the skydiver later told ATSB investigators that it was “more difficult” than he expected.
The report goes on to say that after the remaining skydivers jumped to safety, the pilot “looked over his shoulder and saw parachute debris wrapped around the tail and the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer damaged.”
When he radioed for help, the pilot told air traffic controllers that he had his own parachute and was prepared to “eject” from the plane if the “tail fell off,” the report said.
There was no need. The pilot was able to land safely at Taree Airport in Queensland, but the skydiver’s foot struck the tail end of the plane, causing “significant damage” to the stabilizer, the report said.
The Far North Freefall Club, which organized the skydiving expedition, directed CNN’s questions to Australian Parachute Federation CEO Stephen Porter. CNN has reached out to Porter for comment.
World champion skydiver Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld told CNN on Thursday that he had heard of similar incidents in the past, but had never personally seen a parachute become tangled in a plane before diving.
Brodsky-Chenfeld said what made this case unique was that the backup parachute was deployed rather than the main parachute. Usually a special release system is used to “detach” the chute, but with a reserve parachute this is not possible.
“It was a little more complicated,” Brodsky-Chenfeld explained. “You can’t detach the reserve parachute. The reserve parachute will remain there. Your only option at that point is to use a hook knife to cut the line until you can free it from there.”
Investigator Sara Fien, who is assigned to the case, reiterated in a video posted on YouTube by the ATSB that a hook knife can be a “life-saving” device in incidents like this.
The report notes that the Far North Freefall Club requires divers to carry hook knives and includes footage of the accident in training seminars.
