This death was due to Heli Base flying, but currently we have no information on this fatality.
Pierre was the last to exit the heli, he was following a leader to show him the way on Mt Blanc Line.
After around 60% of the flight, he decided to quit the leader to fly his own line, wich was coherent but brought him lower on the terrain to what has been briefed before boarding.
He still flew the terrain until the very end, and it brought him to pull at a low height.
Still acceptable for a small jump in nice conditions, but way to low for such a big line with gloves & cold temperatures.
He flares normally, put his hand close to the BOC, but nothing goes out and his gesture doesn’t show any panic sign.
He kept the position for around 6s, then de-arch as if he wanted to pull stronger, it brought him to spin and hit the ground a few seconds later.
He didn’t suffer.
What did exactly happen will remain a mystery.
Here are a few factors we think could have led to this tragedy :
-he was tired of too much work when he arrived the day before.
-he was following a strict diet banning a lot of source of proteine, sugar…etc
-he normally never jump with gloves but was forced to because of low temperatures.
-he liked his handle to not go out too much of his pilot chute pocket.
-we felt him more stressed than he usually is.
Still, we can’t see anything on video but the operator is almost sure that his handle was correctly placed when he jumped out the heli.
And his way of flying the line was precise, fluid but less conservative than what he would usually do ; not the kind of flying of someone who is in an advanced state of hypoxia.
What we think did happen : all of the factors upthere had led Pierre to not be in his usual state when he jumped.
It’s been many years he dreamt about this line so he still decided to fly it precise and more committed to what has been briefed.
Those kind of lines can be exhausting, so the flight + his weakened state might have taken him out his ressources needed for safe decision making.
He may have not felt the handle with his gloves, or he grabbed some fabric with the handle and tried to pull without success.
He was so low that he panicked instead of trying an opening gesture a 2nd time.
He was an experienced FreeFlyer, Tunnel Coach, BASE Jumper, SpeedFlyer and was current the past years in Wingsuit BASE.
He already went to WS Tunnel but was not very current in Wingsuit Skydive.
The few lessons he left us can be :
1) Pull high
2) If you’re not in your usual mental or physical state, cancel or go more conservative, even if it’s « The Line » of your life.
He will be missed in the community,
We Love You Pierre
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.
