Jean was attempting a flight from Sass Pordoi Cross and fly back to the gondola station. His exit was witnessed by another jumper from the exit. He had a good start and flew with good glide high on the left ridge. He was seen to turn left and disappeared behind the ridge. He was not seen under canopy, but on previous similar flights had landed his parachute out of view from the exit so it did not seem unusual to the 2nd jumper.
Jumper 2 did a jump and landed in the main landing area in the valley on the right from exit. During their flight they had good lift and smooth air, but had some bumpy air under canopy. After landing, jumper 2 was unable to contact Jean. After not finding him at his van at the gondola station and not being able to contact him rescue was called.
The rescue helicopter located Jean in the snow at the bottom of the wall on the right side of the ridge. He impacted in flight, died instantly and fell down a few hundred metres to come to rest in the snow at the top of the talus. His parachute container was closed with no canopy out and the pilot chute still stowed. He was wearing a chest mount gopro camera, however the camera has broken off on impact and was not found by the rescue team. The area to search for the camera is in a difficult to access area with avalanche danger.
Jean was very happy and full of life during the last month. He had purchased a campervan and was living his dream camping and flying in the Dolomites
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.