Here is a follow-up interview with the grandma in which she says she wasn’t trying to abort the jump, she froze up a little and her knees gave out. The tandem instructor had to give her “a little nudge”.
I suppose with a tandem rig the instructor can tell himself that he’s in complete control and the student/passenger can have little or no effect on the outcome.
He can, but no tandem instructor I’ve ever known would do something like that. What you said about static-line instructors still holds true today for tandem instructors- the student can change his/her mind at any point before exit.
It is very uncommon for a tandem instructor to force his passenger to jump against their will.
Yeah, I wondered about that, photos and videos can trip you up sometimes.
But that free fall, shit.
Well, hers was not the recommended free fall position! 
Couple of points from a former jump master (non-tandem). You can’t hear shit at that point, arms should be across your chest, grabbing or pulling on the door frame does not help a stable exit.
30 - 35 years ago in Florida my then wife and a girlfriend wanted to go skydiving. I was not interested at all. They drove down from our home in Ft Lauderdale to Homestead and were sitting on the ground packing their parachutes for their first jump ever when a gal from the previous plane went splat right in front of them after her parachute didn’t open. Wife never had the urge to jump again.
But she was grasping at the doorframe.
Seems like more than just knee issues.
Like I said, she should have been grabbing the straps or hugging herself, she’d probably specifically been told ‘I’ll put them back on your chest if you do that.’
Many years ago when I was young and stupid I went up for about half a dozen jumps. All went well, although I was a little disturbed when one time it looked like I was going to come down on some railroad tracks and/or telegraph wires! :eek: Apparently the other risk was coming down on cornfields because sometimes the farmers come out and yell at you!
The jumpmasters were very clear: if you change your mind, no one is going to force you. The rule was that the person acting as jumpmaster would then have to stay in the plane with that person until it landed. He wouldn’t get his own free jump, which would piss off the jumpmaster, but that’s life.
I would think that anyone who forcibly made a person jump who didn’t want to, regardless of prior agreements, could be charged with assault and perhaps reckless endangerment and many other things, too.
I did go up once with a newbie who was one of those obnoxious loudmouths whose bluster was a cover for their own fears. Sure enough, when the time came, he refused to jump. The jumpmaster was completely professional – he told the guy to move to the back of the plane with no further comment, and moved on to the next, which happened to be me. No one made a big deal about it, and things proceeded routinely. After the plane landed, though, no one saw ever the guy again. 
Yeah…I’m a bit proponent of taking people at their word, and if she says she wanted to jump, okay, but it really did not look like that to me.
Exactly- we can even see the tandem instructor do just that at the 2:20 mark of the original video. He’s not just peeling her hands from the door frame so he can force her to go. He’s trying to get her into the proper position for a stable exit.
Lots of people get the “deer in the headlights” look when it’s time to jump. Most people have never done anything like that and sensory overload is a factor. It takes a few seconds to process instructions and react. And there is a certain hesitancy due to our natural instinct to avoid falling a great distance (or even a short distance).
When taking up first-time jumpers, jump masters will allow plenty of time for this and start the procedure earlier than experienced jumpers would. The JM knows that he is probably going to see a glazed-over look and that the student is often going to take their sweet time to climb out that door.
I also believe we should take someone at their word and if she says she wanted to go and he didn’t force her, I believe her. She is laughing about the whole thing in the interview.
When I skydived, I was shown an instruction video. Part of it said something to the effect of, “Sometimes we have to make suddenly-reluctant skydivers go through with it,” and then showed just that; tandem instructors forcing some scared and protesting skydivers out the airplane door, attached to the students by harness.
Would you mind telling me, here or via PM, where you made your jump? I’m curious whether they are affiliated with the U.S. Parachute Association. I’ve never heard of a skydiving center that included a statement like that in their instructional video. I’m not saying there aren’t DZs like that- they aren’t all group members of USPA- but it isn’t “approved” or standard procedure.
Topic+username+join date=skepticism
I skydived tandem one time and one time only. I was terrified. The fear was there before we ever left the ground but as the plane climbed to altitude it grew exponentially. To this day I think the only reason I didn’t chicken out is my girlfriend (now wife) was 2 or 3 jumpers behind me in the order and she was super excited to do this. Mentally I didn’t want to chicken out in front of her. However… as we waddled to the door, my left foot got to the edge where it was supposed to be but my right foot anchored itself to the plane’s floor and just simply would not move any closer. To use Bumpershoot’s term, I went into full sensory overload and my brain was frantically ordering my right foot to take the last step but my right foot was not going anywhere. My hands were clasped tightly to my harness, so as to not have me in a panic grab for the door to jump master, but that darn right leg was immobile.
Needless to say, it was close enough and with a little 1…2…3 out the door we went. I thought I had sensory overload before that but I was mistaken. It was indescribable. I think my saving grace was seeing the videographer move into position that gave me something to focus on. I can’t lie, I didn’t care for the free fall part but I sure enjoyed it after the chute was deployed.
When we landed and my girlfriend landed, the first thing she said after “HEY BABY!” and giving me a kiss was “Let’s do it again!”. I passed on that. I figured that I went all in and won that hand. Better not give it all back to the casino. Haha
Oh, as to the OPs question my default assumption was that rather extensive waiver I signed would prevent me from suing. As our instructor told us, the waiver basically covered them from even the most significant negligence. I believe one example the instructor mentioned was if the pilot decides to kill everyone by flying the plane into the ground, they’re not liable. Haha
Probably not. Despite what a signed waiver may say, in the real world it does not protect against the consequences of serious negligence.
Battery, guys. Battery.
MeanJoe, do you remember if your instructor said anything about whether you could change your mind at the last minute?
Assault and battery are not negligence, but intentional. I doubt that a waiver could protect them from intentional acts, particularly if those acts are also criminal in nature, as assault and battery are.