subject: Skydiving Safety Myth Buster [print this page] If you're new skydiving, one of the biggest questions you may have is, "how safe is the sport?" We have all heard the occasional accident where a parachute is does not open, someone gets caught in powerlines or the parachute does not open and person dies from impact. These types of accidents very rare. Sport of skydiving is actually quite safe.
Did you know that every year, about 30 people die in parachuting accidents in the United States. This is about one person per 100,000 jumps. So how does this compare with other more common, every day activities we do everyday? Well, many adults in the US drive automobiles. So let's compare driving a car to skydiving June know that about 40,000 people die every year in auto accidents in the US. That's roughly 1.7 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles. So, if you drive 10,000 miles per year (which is about average for most people), your chance of dying in an automobile accident is close to one in 6000. Given this statistic, we are taking a higher level of risk by getting into our cars each and every day than by the occasional skydiving excursion. If you do the math on this, you will need to skydive approximately 17 times every year for the risk of dying in a skydiving accident to equal your risk of dying in a car accident.
Now we have some baseline for comparison, let's take a look at several sports which have various mortality rates: scuba diving has 5 deaths per year, mountaineering has 140/year, boxing has 30/year, hang gliding as 28/year, general aviation has 800/year. So as you can see skydiving is relatively safe.
One of the biggest myth regarding skydiving safety would be that your parachute will not open. The fact is there are a lot of fears about this but has been taken care of with any modern parachute. Modern equipment is fitted with the device that will deploy a parachute automatically just in case the skydive or fails to do that themselves. This is an AAD or Automatic Activation Device.
The most common reason for skydiving injuries or death has to do with mistakes and procedure or bad judgment. So, if you are well prepared and do everything right enjoy your exhilarating freefall to tell the awesome story of your skydiving experience.
It is important for people interested in skydiving to know that it is an incredibly fun sport and it is very safe. If you are ever in the East Missouri or St. Louis area, please stop by and visit the Skydive Flying V Ranch. We are also the closest skydiving center to Columbia, Missouri and the choice of skydivers from St. Peters, St. Charles, and Jefferson City, Missouri. We are a family owned business and have a lifetime of experience around aircraft and skydiving. Check out our website and win a free skydive by entering the contest. You can call us at 888-866-8918.
I hope this article has dispelled several of the myths you might have about skydiving safety. As long as you don't get over confident, cocky with what you know or go beyond the limits of safety regulations, you will have a great time with this sport.
