Dan Bronsky-Chenfeld seems to have discovered the secret to life. He knows every waking moment has the potential to be indescribably brilliant. He knows the apparent monotony of existence is merely an illusion. That reality can be far more mysterious and captivating if you simply clear your mind of presumption and allow yourself to be taught anew. He’s made the journey from who society tells us we should be, into a world of unlimited imagination.
As the General Manager of the largest dropzone on the west coast of North America, Dan may know the secret to life. But he also knows it comes at a cost. He knows that the brightness of our existence is due in part to the contrast provided by the darkness of its end. The nature of reality became all too clear once again at Skydive Perris on December 27th, 2011 when the life of 32 year old Canadian, Michael Ungar, ended as he failed to successfully execute a swoop. As Mike struck the earth, his impact with the darkness of reality created shockwaves in its light.
In the milliseconds before the accident, only Mike knew that something had gone wrong. An instant later, the darkness of reality burst outward, encompassing everyone who had been watching this highly skilled athlete perform his craft. Outside of this small sphere, life carried on unaware.
“When an accident happens at our dropzone, as one of the Safety and Training Advisors, I’m one of the first to be notified. You instantly go into emergency mode and your first thought is ‘What can we do to help?’” describes Chenfeld. “Right after the accident, very few people know what has happened. This is a good thing because a crowd can slow down emergency efforts.” In Mike’s case, any heroic efforts would prove futile.
The waves of the event quickly spread throughout the dropzone by word of mouth. We can imagine that each person, depending on their relationship to Mike reacted differently. It would strike his friends most violently. For the staff, experience and preparation would dictate their response. Those at the dropzone that day who didn’t know him would suddenly find themselves faced with the news that one of their brothers had been lost. As the ripples continued out beyond the dropzone, to emergency personnel and the media, every one of those already affected would begin to ask the inevitable question, “Why?”
“It impacts everyone in the skydiving community when one of our brothers or sisters dies. We all want to know what went wrong and what could have been done to prevent it.” explains Chenfeld, “In this case, as in most cases these days, it appears to be the result of pilot error.”
Mike had performed several successful swoops earlier that day. On his final jump, witnesses say his setup looked good and there was nothing unusual about his entry into the dive. However, as he neared the ground, instead of smoothly flying out of the dive as he normally would, Mike stabbed down on his brakes and then brought one brake up, resulting in a steep turn from which he didn’t recover. “We can’t think of any reason why he would have done that.” says Chenfeld “We don’t know what took place in his mind at that moment.”
Skydive Perris has strict rules for where and when swooping can happen. Jumpers must have at least 700 jumps under their belts and have sufficient experience with the canopy they are planning to use for swooping. Even then, most swoopers are restricted to hop ‘n pops. After repeatedly demonstrating their abilities, and a high level of situational awareness, just a handful of jumpers have been cleared to swoop after opening from a high altitude jump. When Chenfeld explained these rules to Mike, the newcomer was understanding, respectful and compliant. “In the short time I spent with him, he came across as a good guy; smart, heads-up, not cocky.” said Chenfeld, “He understood the risks and clearly communicated what I needed to hear to be convinced that he knew what he was doing.”
The elevated risks associated with swooping have caused many dropzones to disallow it altogether. But for Chenfeld, this isn’t a part of his plan.
“The safest skydive is a static-line under a round parachute. Everything we introduce to the equation from there adds to the complexity and danger of the jump. Freeflying, CRW, wingsuits, big ways, every one of these disciplines has its own risks. So where do we draw the line?”
Chenfled continues, “Every major dropzone wants to offer a facility that lets athletes participate in the disciplines they’re into as safely as possible. For swooping, this means ensuring participants have the proper training, swoops are performed over water, and you provide for separation between swoopers and non-swoopers. And not just separate patterns but separation by time as well. If it becomes too busy for swoops to safely integrate into the traffic flow, we’ll shut them down until there’s space for them. But at the end of the day we’re jumping out of airplanes. We’ll never completely take the risk out of that. All we can do is try to make it as safe as possible.”
As the initial shock of a tragedy passes, most skydivers will find themselves reflecting on their own reasons for jumping; once again weighing the balance between fun and risk. “I think every one of us takes a step back and asks ourselves the question ‘Why do I do this? Is it worth it?’” says Chenfeld.
When asked what single action he would recommend to other dropzones to prevent accidents, Chenfeld responds passionately. “We need to make safety a part of our culture. We need to make it ok for people to ask questions and call each other on issues that could lead to an accident We need to make it cool to be safety conscious and uncool not to be.”
“The sport is safer today because of the equipment we have available to us but at the same time it provides a false sense of security. Some new jumpers aren’t scared enough. How many jumpers are there that have thousands of jumps but have never had a malfunction? Then when it does happen, they’re surprised. They don’t react quickly. They cut late, pull the reserve late and rob themselves of the time they need to get out of a bad situation.”
“On every jump we need to expect that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Expect a malfunction on every pull and be pleasantly surprised when your parachute opens. It doesn’t matter how much separation we have on opening, we’re all converging to land in the same area. So expect people to be close on every landing. Many of the skydiving fatalities of the last few years have been the result of experienced jumpers, doing normal jumps, colliding in a normal traffic pattern because somebody wasn’t aware of what was going on around them. Safety is maintained only as long as we keep it in mind. As soon as we stop paying attention it immediately goes away”
When any aviation related accident takes place it tends to draw media attention. Skydiving is no exception. In an effort to maintain the reputation of the sport, Chenfeld recommends a straight forward approach, “When an accident at our dropzone happens, we answer every call that comes in. We direct all media communication through a single person to ensure accurate information is delivered. If we don’t properly educate the media, they’ll make assumptions that can be damaging to the sport. Like if a jumper goes in and hasn’t pulled any of his handles, the media might report that both parachutes failed. Or they may possibly find a less experienced or ill-informed jumper to interview. It’s not pleasant but we need to be open and honest about the situation.”
Chenfeld knows first-hand what it’s like to face the dark truth of reality. While training for the World Skydiving Championships, he survived a plane crash that killed sixteen others, including one of his teammates. Chenfeld suffered a broken neck, broken skull, severe head trauma and a collapsed lung. After six weeks in a coma, he would fight back to win multiple world skydiving titles. He tells his story in his inspiring new book Above All Else available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or aboveallelsethebook.com
Skydive Perris is the largest skydiving center on the west coast of the United States. They have a fleet of three Twin Otters, two Skyvans, a Pilatus PC-6 and a DC-9 jet. The dropzone offers training at all levels of experience and puts between 120,000 and 140,000 skydivers in the air each year.
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Well written article, thank you.
Dan
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