Shayna Richardson

Shayna Richardson (born 1984) is a student skydiver from Joplin, Missouri who made headlines in 2005 after she survived a skydiving accident and fell face first in a parking lot, and later was found to be pregnant.

Accident

The accident occurred on October 9, 2005 during Richardson's 6th solo jump in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. While it is widely reported in the mainstream media that the accident was the result of equipment malfunction, many in the skydiving community insist that the problem was actually with Richardson's inexperience. Her main chute opened properly but she unstowed a toggle by doing riser turns which caused her to start spinning out of control. This could have easily been fixed with a controlability check but instead at that point, Richardson cut away her main parachute (an emergency procedure intitiated via a quick-release system which disconnects the main canopy from the harness) and attempted to deploy her reserve chute, which didn't deploy completely.

Rescuers took her to a hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Richardson underwent surgery having broken her pelvis in two places, her leg and lost six teeth. After falling 10,000 ft, Richardson now has 15 steel plates and states, "I went into the first surgery where they cut me from ear to ear and they cut my face down and they took out all the fractured egg-shelled bones and put in steel plates." Remarkably, while treating Richardson for her injuries doctors discovered that she was pregnant; a fact of which Richardson was previously unaware.

Shanya's child, Richard Tanner West, was born on June 17, 2006. He weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces at birth and appears to not have been affected in any way by the accident, but doctors are concerned that X-Rays and medications taken by Shayna may have caused problems with the baby's development.

Technical Explanation

Toggles are webbing loops attached to the brake lines of a parachute. Pulling on the left toggle will turn the parachute to the left and pulling on the right, to the right. The toggles are stowed in elastic loops on webbing straps called “risers” which connect the parachute lines to the harness.

It is also possible to turn a parachute by pulling hard on one of these risers. This is called a "riser turn" and may be performed as an avoidance maneuver if a skydiver finds their parachute has opened too close to another jumper. It is common for student skydivers to be asked to practice such maneuvers during their early skydives so that they are familiar with the skill should they open close to another jumper later in their jumping career.

As parachutes open with their brakes set in the "half-brakes" position, when Shayna accidentally un-stowed one toggle it is thought that she inadvertently caused her canopy to spin as one side of the parachute was flying at full speed while the other was set to fly at half speed. The appropriate remedy for this problem is simply to either un-stow the other toggle or to pull down on the toggle already un-stowed. The spin will then stop almost immediately as both sides of the parachute will be flying at the same speed.

A more experienced jumper would be expected to notice the cause of such a turn and could easily rectify it as described above. Such awareness is not always expected of students (such as Shayna) although opinion is somewhat divided. Some members of the skydiver instructional community believe it appropriate to teach students about this situation and the appropriate remedy while others believe it more important that students not be confused with various different responses to a spinning parachute.

As students are either not taught to recognize this kind of situation, or in many cases simply lack the clarity of mind to act correctly in a high stress situation, students are normally provided with larger, more docile parachutes for their first few jumps. This would normally mean that should a problem occur with one of their toggles, the movement of the canopy would be far less severe than one would expect from a sport parachute and as such a landing without corrective action would either be more survivable or the student would have more time to solve the problem under the more slowly revolving parachute.

In addition to a student’s reaction to a perceived malfunction, they are also trained to perform a "control check" immediately after the parachute opening. This is the common method for confirming the parachute is undamaged and controllable. The control check is usually simply un-stowing both toggles and pulling them both down to the crotch twice (often followed by a left and right turn). If Shayna had carried out her control check she would have un-stowed the other toggle and corrected the problem. Students are trained however that should they conclude their parachute has malfunctioned they are to perform their cut-away procedure without wasting time with a control check.

It is also important to carry out a control check following the opening of the reserve parachute. Had this been done, skydivers speculate that it is most likely that the problem with this parachute would also have been easily rectified. The video footage of the descent appears to show the "slider" of the reserve parachute stuck half way up the reserve parachute lines. The slider is a piece of nylon webbing that slides down the lines slowly, which slows the opening, decreasing the g-force to an acceptable level. A stuck slider is a common nuisance factor and is remedied by pulling both toggles down to the crotch. Viewers can clearly hear her instructor following under his own parachute shouting to Shayna to do just this, (he is calling out "pump the brakes", which is another way of describing the above procedure).

It is likely that had Shayna done this the reserve slider would have moved down the lines and she would have had a good canopy with which to make a normal, safe landing (although it must be noted that examination of the equipment after the jump has not demonstrated conclusively what caused the slider to remain part way up the lines and as such this cannot be stated conclusively).

As with the main parachute, students are usually provided with very large reserve parachutes which will not normally react badly to a situation where the slider has failed to move down the lines. Such large parachutes will usually fly as normal, with a slightly higher rate of descent before correcting themselves, rather than spinning quickly as Shayna’s parachute can be seen to do in the footage released to the media. In worst-case scenarios, the size of student parachute equipment is designed to increase the survivability of even landings at speed under a partially malfunctioning canopy as demonstrated by Shayna’s descent.

While questions have been asked about the appropriateness of the size of Shayna’s parachute equipment, it is important to note that it has not been determined that she was provided with inappropriately sized equipment with which to conduct her jump.

External links

* [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,178545,00.html Fox News story of the accident]
* [http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=1973796 Dropzone.com forum thread discussing the accident]
* [http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2096084;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; Dropzone.com forum thread dissussing media and vendor support]
* [http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060617/NEWS01/606170357 Richard Tanner West's birth]