BFL
Australian

BFL239 · 17.8.2014

Shaun Otto

Australian

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BASE seasons

BASE jumps

WS BASE jumps

Skydives

WS skydives

Incident

Incident category:
BASE Fatality
ID:
BFL239
Object:
Earth
Cause of death:
Impact in terminal freefall
Date:
17. 08. 2014
Time:
Exit point:
France › Chamonix › Brevent

Other incidents at this location: BFL189, BFL210, BFL219, BFL271, BFL276, BFL290, BFL295, BFL304

Exit type:
Short Start

Personal

Name:
Shaun Otto
Gender:
Male
Nationality:
Australian
Age:
Experience:

Equipment & Setup

Canopy:
Canopy size:
Container:
Suit:
Unspecified › Unknown - Unspecified WS
Packing:
Slider Up
Deployment:
BOC

Circumstances

Weather:
Sunny Winds light and variable
Factors:
Proximity flying Loss of speed-glide

Description

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.

Gallery

Lost, but not forgotten...