BFL239 | 17.8.2014

Shaun Otto

from Australia

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Unknown

BASE SEASONS

Unknown

SKYDIVES

Unknown

WS SKYDIVES

Unknown

BASE JUMPS

Unknown

WS BASE JUMPS
  • Date & Time: 17.8.2014
  • Location: Brevent, Chamonix, France
  • Category: BASE Fatality
  • Object Type: Earth
  • Cause Of Death: Impact in terminal freefall
  • Clothing - Suit: Unknown - Unspecified WSUnknown Wingsuit by Unspecified
  • Canopy: Unknown
  • Container: Unknown
  • Packing & Setup: Slider Up BOC Short Start
  • Weather: Sunny, Winds light and variable
  • Possible Factors: Loss of speed-glide, Proximity flying

What do we believe happened?

Shaun was nearing the end of a three-month BASE tour in Europe. He was an experienced wingsuit BASE jumper flying Line 2 at Brevent, with several jumps from this exit the previous season, flying the same line and others.

This year, he was flying a new suit known to have flight characteristics that differ from his previous suit. One of the notable differences, when comparing the two suits, is how a pilot would fly a very steep line, such as those found at Brevent.
Shaun was hyper-current this season, on his current suit; however, it was said that he did not have as much experience flying this particular suit at the highly aggressive angles required to fly the Brevent lines.
While turning left above line 2, he began a hard dive to get down to the terrain. Shaun stopped his dive around 3-4 meters above the line, just before a slight right turn, where it appeared he exposed too much of the top surface of his wing to the relative wind, causing a downward force on his flying.
To counter this, Shaun made an abrupt change in his angle of attack, which resulted in a high-speed stall, where he lost stability and tumbled to impact.

Contact

Missing something?

Can you help us with incident interpretation? We are interested in any details regarding personal experience, gear, weather conditions and any other circumstances related to the incident.

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