Skydiving And Parachuting Safety
There are a number of myths surrounding skydiving safety, but just how safe is it really? Here’s a quick guide so you can put your mind at ease when it comes to knowing about skydiving safety.
There are a number of myths surrounding skydiving safety, but just how safe is it really? Here’s a quick guide so you can put your mind at ease when it comes to knowing about skydiving safety.
The biggest barrier to people having a go at skydiving is that it is perceived to be dangerous. However, skydiving safety is closely monitored and maintained, meaning it is less dangerous than you might think.
Associations in the majority of key skydiving countries ensures the safety of all participants by closely monitoring the standards of equipment, facilities and training at all dropzones. Of course, it would be untrue to say accidents don’t happen but there isn’t really any sporting activity that doesn’t have some associated risks.
All sports have an element of risk whether horse riding, football, cycling or scuba diving – the list goes on. The truth is that if you study the number of skydiving accidents, compared to the number of people taking part in the sport then you would find that it is one of the safest adventure sports there is!
Safety precautions
When you skydive you have a main canopy and if this should malfunction for any reason then you have a reserve canopy. All reserve canopies will be automatically opened by an Automatic Activation Device (AAD) should you fail to deploy the reserve yourself.
As a precaution, all reserve canopies will be unpacked, inspected and meticulously repacked every three months. All main canopies for student skydivers are packed by an experienced packer and checked at several stages of packing by a second packer.
Everything possible has been done to make skydiving as safe as possible so you can simply get out there and enjoy the thrill of the sport. If lack of safety is a major fear of yours, then opt for an Accelerated Freefall Course – they are slightly more expensive than the traditional static-line progression programs but the statistics undoubtedly show a lower accident rate in AFF courses.
Finally, many people think that skydivers must be a little crazy but skydivers would argue that you must be a little crazy not to try the most thrilling adrenaline packed sport on the planet! Yes, there are risks, but who doesn’t go through life without taking a risk every now and then.