BFL321 | 28.6.2017

Micah Couch

from United States of America33 years

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3

BASE SEASONS

12400

SKYDIVES

Unknown

WS SKYDIVES

470

BASE JUMPS

Unknown

WS BASE JUMPS
  • Date & Time: 28.6.2017, 19:15
  • Location: Kammen, Aurland, Norway
  • Category: BASE Fatality
  • Object Type: Earth
  • Cause Of Death: Unable to pull
  • Clothing - Suit: C-RaceExpert Wingsuit by Squirrel
  • Canopy: 242 FLiK7 Cell - Vented by Apex BASE
  • Container: Snekor2 Pin by Fly your body
  • Packing & Setup: Slider Up BOC Vertical
  • Weather: Sunny
  • Possible Factors: Unable to locate pilot chute

What do we believe happened?

About the jump:
Me in front leading the way, Micah wanted to follow me and Mathias as number three.
Micah exited on the inner so he could be on me from the beginning.
We had good starts turning right to enter behind the spires and into the huge couloir. I saw Micah´s shadow when we where flying through in a quite hard dive and lots of energy. That part of the flight was amazing. Beautiful, fast, powerful and safe in the same time.
When we disconnected and flew out in the valley I saw Micah on my right side flying out in safe environment to pull. We had pretty good height when we flew out in the valley. When I saw his video I saw him flare and have lots of altitude. At this point myself was still continuing flying much lower than Micah.
I pulled my canopy and right after opening i saw Micah still on my right side continuing flying. I was quite shocked that he hadn`t pulled because he started to be low.
Then i saw him struggling to pull his PC. I saw he tried different moves. I'm not 100% but i saw him de-arch instead of arching. Then he turned over to his back just before the impact.
He was fighting to the very end to find the PC, he was not interested at all to crash himself into the ground. The eyewitnesses heard him scream before impact.
I landed and called rescue and ran over to find Micah. There was several people from the neighbourhood there already. There was nothing we could do.
When police and ambulance came we checked Micah`s rig. Pilot chute was just out of the pocket, bridle still in folds. So the pilot chute came out of the BOC on impact.
We checked pins and they were moving, just to be 100% sure.
We could not check his WS at this moment, but I think this issue has been taken from other jumpers and the manufacturer.
This accident was one of the accidents that just should not happen. I look back at the jump and can`t find any other things we could do to avoid this. The jump is one of the safer jumps I do. The flight pattern was done in a proper way.
I hope we can learn from this as with all the other accidents. The pull is the moment when I have highest heart beats through a jump. Be sure that you can pull whatever you fly.
I'm really sad for the loss to all of you.

Tom Erik Heimen

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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