Fatality Report May 17, 2024

B. was a member of our Intermediate Wingsuit BASE Camp in Loen, Norway. He was a very experienced BASE jumper and wanted to improve his exits and performance. Throughout the first few days of the course, his exits had not been great but manageable in the relative safety of Loen. We had been working with him with multiple methods to improve the stability and consistency of his starts, with moderate improvement. On the morning of May 17, we planned to take the course on a hike to a mountain named Saksa. It had been jumped once by a local Norwegian and was reported to have a “9 second rock drop”. None of the instructors had been to the mountain before. We thought it would be a good exercise in site evaluation for the students, and a beautiful hike.
B. was in great spirits as we started the hike at 5am with the intention of jumping before 10am. We added plenty of time to take the hike slow, but he was at the head of the pack. As we reached the summit of the mountain and began scouting for potential exits, we did not find anything close to a “9 second rock drop”. After splitting from the group, Espen and I began looking for something that would work. We found 2 potential exits with vertical numbers in the 170 meter range (with steep terrain below). On top of that, the terrain just opposite of the exit was raised requiring a 30 degree right hand turn shortly after inflation. We agreed that the exit was only acceptable for a few students with consistent exits. Another experienced jumper who had joined us for the hike jumped first, radioing up accurate interpretation of his flight. The entire scene became quite chaotic with some jumpers gearing up and others preparing to walk down. We discussed at length that exit was not suitable if their exits were not dialed and discussed the visual aspect of the jump, detailing the profile and the risks. We informed everyone that we would walk down with anyone who chose not to jump. We had ample food and water and weather was perfect. B. was very fast to gear up and suddenly appeared over my shoulder on exit ready to jump as I was discussing conditions with another student. Another instructor was in the process of gearing up to go first but he insisted that he was ready. B.’s exit was quite steep with asymmetric and kicking legs, he tried to correct and turn right but it looked like he panicked, bent his legs, and dug in his arms. His suit stalled almost immediately, and he impacted shortly after an emergency pitch at 7 seconds.
I have known B. for 10 years; he was a good friend. The major failures of the day were as follows:
1. Expectations did not meet reality for the day, and B. was expecting to jump.
2. The chaos in the 30 minutes of exit point searching and movement around the mountain created a lot of room for errors in analysis and judgement.
3. B. chose to jump into a situation he hoped he would perform perfectly, without enough repetition and consistency.
4. Experience or confidence gained over 10 years ago should not equate to modern wing suit jumps.

https://www.nrk.no/mr/alvorleg-ulykke-med-basehopp-fra-fjell-i-more-og-romsdal-1.16887328