Since this is something that was never possible before, jumpers are drawn to new techniques and being the “first” to try new tricks. I agree with the authors that the increase in fatalities is likely due increases in proximity flying, where jumpers attempt to glide close to cliffs. Wingsuit jumping appears to increase these odds, but no data exists yet to show how much. And while the authors argue that wingsuits still make up a very small proportion of BASE jumping, but a large proportion of deaths, they do admit that there is no reliable data on absolute number of participants.īASE jumping carries a 0.2-0.4% injury rate per jump, and a fatality rate of 0.04% per jump. The proportion of deaths that involve wingsuits is also increasing, and for the first 9 months of 2013, 90% involve wingsuits, per the discussion section. Of the mechanisms, 43% involved glide path miscalculation, 18% jump complication, but 23% “unknown”, so you can only take so much from the data.Ībsolute number of deaths has increased over the last 11 years as well, likely due to increased popularity in the sport. The impact site was 49% cliff, and 48% ground. Between 2002-2007 16% of the deaths from BASE jumping involved wingsuits, but 2008-2011, 49% involved wingsuits. This isn’t surprising, as modern wingsuits weren’t being used until the late 1990s. The first reported wingsuit death was in 2002, 21 years after the first reported BASE jumping death. Many narratives implied that most people without data were also experienced. Of the fatalities with data on prior jumps (8), the mean was 26 prior jumps with a range from 0-92, and 2 of the fatalities came from a first wingsuit jump. Of these wingsuit fatalities, 38 came from cliffs, and only 1 came from a building. So what did they find? Of the 180 BASE jumping fatalities in the 20 year span, 39 involved wingsuits. To be fair, a large amount of this data was subjective “expert consensus” of a group of experienced BASE jumpers. They then divided injuries into object impacts, ground impacts, and further by glide path miscalculation, wingsuit failure, pilot chute failure, or jump complication. They were able to pull out data from 1981-2011, excluding any deaths that weren’t related to wingsuits. This database is managed by BLiNC Magazine, in an interesting departure from typical academic research. This article used the BASE Fatality List to assess all incidents and see what the etiology of the accidents and injury mechanisms were as a basis for future safety recommendations and preventive measures.
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