In skydiving, both main AND reserve malfunctioned

What an amazing instructor. There is nothing that fills the pit of your stomach with despair than watching your student have a malfunction in front of you and not being able to do much. This instructor was searching like an eagle to find his student, then followed them down to render assistance (also executed a precision landing to be near to them). So proud of this instructor - they are a credit to the skydiving fraternity.

Dude lived more in those 5 minutes than most folks do in a lifetime 😂

I kept thinking “all that beautiful land and he’s gonna hit the road 🤦‍♂️”

The parachute didn't malfunction. The skydiver did not open it properly... Happy that he lived to show it.

As a test pilot once told me, "if ejecting isn't an option, do your best to fly until the ground stops you. It's not hitting the ground that hurts you; it's the speed and angle that you hit the ground that can hurt you... or save you." Never give up. And all things considered, after a double malfunction, a broken pinky being the worst of your injuries makes you an extremely lucky person. Blue skies!

This one turned out to be one of those unexpected gems we sometimes find among all the streamlined crap here. A rollercoaster ride from the real world, unedited and raw. Thanks!

Back in 1972 I decided I wanted to go skydiving. Went to our local club, went through the instruction-on-the-ground training, harness training and malfunction training. Did my 10 static line jumps, loved it. At the time jumping a TU triple blank. My first 10 second freefall, I pulled my ripcord (the old metal cable with swaged locking pins through cones and nothing happened, the cable was stuck! Used both hands and basically forced the ripcord to work, now opening in a head towards the earth attitude! The chute opened and all was well. As a newby, I told my instructor what happened, he checked out the rig (clubs rig) and just about shat himself! The pins were all bent! From the on I checked my own rig and eventually bought my own Para Commander (long before squares were developed). I eventually changed over to hang gliding in its inception. A great sport which has evolved to this day! Keep flying, no matter what you fly!

A guy skydiving solo for the first time realizes that both of his parachutes won't open as he plummets to earth and begins to panic... then he sees another guy rocketing up towards him from the ground below with a big fireball beneath him... as the guy rockets by he yells at him, "Do you know anything about parachutes???"... and the rocketing guy yells back, "No, I don't, but do you know anything about propane barbecues???"

ARCH, ARCH ARCH !! glad you are OK man. I know for a fact that getting out of control as a newbie is a terrifying experience. It happened to me 30 years ago. Study this video over and over with your instructor about every single thing that happened and learn from it. Going forward, you'll be a much better jumper because of this.

I love to fly, and have had friends who sky-dive and base-jump. (I'm a GA pilot who learned to fly to help conquer my acrophobia.) I flew over to another airport long ago, to watch sky-diving. It was uneventful for a while. I was standing beside a flight instructor I knew, watching the action, when one young man had a streamer. He pulled his reserve but it just caught in the streamer. The FI beside me threw his binoculars down on the ground and ran for the hangar. I watched as the young man hit the ground. I'm medically trained so I ran over to see if there was anything i could do to help, sadly, there was not, pulse was negative, I checked his pupils which were dilated but uneven and he had a little blood in his nose. We did CPR and worked on him until the ambulance arrived, but sadly, I learned that he did not survive. I was distressed and upset, but I had to get it together in order to fly myself back to my home airport, which I did without incident. I'll never forget that as long as I live. I've seen many accident results in the ER at work, and subsequent deaths. But for some reason I have never forgotten the horror of that incident. (I have in the past, gone up to drop sky-divers but I do NOT sky-dive myself.) And when I see these wing-suit divers today on Red Bull videos, and knowing many have died doing that, it seals my resolve to not do any more thrill-seeking like I used to do -- as you age, longevity starts to look very inviting!

Never gave up! What a great effort. Hope your pinky is OK, man. 25 years since I last nearly died and I still think about it every now again with a big grin and experience the joy of being alive all over again.

I'm glad you're okay! Thank you for sharing this experience that makes us even more responsible for our activity. I hope you get back on the plane soon.

An old-school skydiving line - "Keep pulling handles and lines 'til blood fills your goggles." Good job saving your own life. It wasn't pretty, but sometimes life hands you a shit sandwich. You made it work. Congrats on walking away from something that was rightfully scary as f*ck. I hope you bought a lottery ticket that day, because (not that it helps, but) this is literally a one-in-a-million occurrence. As others have said, you followed your pull procedures and pulled when you got unstable, at the correct time. There will likely be some Monday-morning "armchair instructors" (read: don't have a rating, or think too highly of themselves) commenting and saying "You should have done X," or "This was your fault- if you had done Y, nothing would have happened." Ignore them. As an AFF-I who had my first cutaway at jump 39 under a spinning/diving main, I had similar commenters from the ground. But one AFF-I pulled me aside and said, "Did you die today?" I said "No." Them: "Did you follow your EPs (emergency procedures)?" Me: "Yes." Them: "Then f*ck them. They weren't there, and you saved your own life. That's all that matters." Now, as an AFF-I, it seems to me you followed your EPs - and when you got unstable, you got fabric over your head (which is what we tell students at your level). Unfortunately, you got tangled in the lines - and at these speeds, that means a really bad day no matter what your level of experience. You kept fighting until you landed, and saved your own life. Damn good work. I know you've said on other threads you don't plan to continue - and no one will blame you. But did want to tip my hat to you, and tell you you've seen one of the worst mals a jumper can have, and lived to tell about it. In >1000 jumps, I've never experienced anything that hairy, and most never do. If you decide to continue, given your body position and other fling, I think you'd be a great skydiver. Some tunnel time would cure a lot of confidence in freefall. Regardless, good luck!

Excellent instructor, stayed with him the whole time ❤️

So happy to see you didn’t have any major injuries!! You kept it together and saved your self!!

I jumper for 24 years, had 5 functions and one with both deployed, cut the main away and watched the main follow my reserve risers and clear, had to raise my legs to get over the power lines, did a cross wind landing, in a plowed field that was muddy due to a leaking utility water line, no broken bones, wasn’t my time to check out, THANK YOU JESUS, Blue Skies…..

So thankful you walked away. Incredible work at staying cool and fighting until the end. This could have ended very differently. Weather you jump again or not, please know you have the fighters spirit in you and that will get you so far in all aspects of life. Blue Skies brotha!

Man, I am so happy to see you walk away from this. I just got my solo license this summer and had to pull on my back once which was the right decision and I was lucky that it opened very nicely. Well done buddy saving your life. I hope you continue. Cheers.

Glad you made it! Thanks for sharing the video, watching and learning from it could save someone's life.

Wow incredible, glad the student was OK. You are an awesome instructor too