Description: This was a planned 2 way with his new wife, It seems he impacted the water with what people are describing a low pull possible missed pull. Brandon was a conservative jumper so we are now awaiting for his gear to be inspected.
Update 15th Sept
At approximately 2pm on Monday, September 9, Brandon Chance was killed in a BASE jumping accident at the Perrine Bridge, in Twin Falls, Idaho, USA. He was an extremely experienced jumper who had been BASE jumping for more than a decade, and had made more than 700 BASE jumps. He was also an extremely experienced professional skydiver, who had made more than 18,000 skydives.
This jump was a two way with his wife. Brandon took the low slot. Brandon was flat and stable in free fall, and had a good view of the other jumper’s exit and deployment. He maintained a flat and stable body position and intentionally took a very deep (approximately 4 seconds) delay. The jump plan called for Brandon to open low and land in the lower (beach) landing area, so that the entire upper landing area was clear for the other jumper.
Brandon made his initial attempt to throw his pilot chute at approximately 4 seconds, reaching back with one hand in a normal slider down deployment motion. He encountered some difficulty in deploying the pilot chute. Unfortunately the only video of the incident is a relatively low quality phone video shot from the exit point, and examination of the video does not reveal the nature of his deployment difficulty. The video shows definite movement of his right hand to the BOC, and then motion of his arm and shoulder in an attempt to throw. It is unclear if he experienced a hard pull, a missed pull, a fumble of the PC, or some other difficulty.
After his first failed attempt to initiate deployment, Brandon brought both hands to the BOC, in a “wingsuit pitch” motion, with his left hand moving symmetrically in to the left side of the BOC. He gave one leg kick during this motion, but remained in a stable, belly to earth position. He threw the pilot chute smoothly at approximately 5.1 seconds of delay. The PC inflated immediately with no evidence of hesitation, opening the container and bringing the canopy to line stretch.
The canopy experienced nose expansion, but did not complete pressurization prior to impact. The final video frame before impact shows the canopy with a fully open nose, but with the tailgate still in place.
On gear inspection, the tailgate was no longer closed around the lines, but it is unclear if the tailgate released prior to impact, or at some point during the rescue attempt and gear recovery.
There was no evidence of gear malfunction either in video review or in post-incident gear inspection.