Undetermined · NTSB ERA17LA018
CESSNA 208 — Dunnellon, FL
| Date | October 14, 2016 |
| Location | Dunnellon, FL |
| Aircraft | CESSNA 208 |
| Purpose of flight | Skydiving |
| Conditions | Day · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Enroute-cruise Miscellaneous/other |
| Pilot age | 67 |
| Pilot total time | 6,761 hrs · High time |
| Time in type | 2,065 hrs |
| Fatalities | 1 |
Probable cause
NTSB findings
- Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Passenger - C
What happened
The airplane was at 1,250 ft above ground level carrying a load of skydivers. According to a skydiving instructor onboard the airplane, the jumpmaster leaned forward to assist a skydiver in exiting the airplane when the jumpmaster's reserve parachute inadvertently deployed and entered the airplane's slipstream. The jumpmaster attempted to pull the parachute back into the airplane but was pulled into the door frame and dragged out of the airplane. The jumpmaster, who appeared to be unconscious, descended to the ground beneath his streaming (unopened) reserve parachute without deploying his main parachute. The pilot maintained control of the airplane and landed safely. Examination of the jumpmaster's reserve parachute revealed that it was damaged by impact with the door frame, thus it did not deploy properly. It is likely that the jumpmaster failed to guard his reserve parachute ripcord, which was exposed on the front of his parachute, and the ripcord snagged on something as he attempted to assist the exiting skydiver, which caused the reserve parachute to deploy prematurely.