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Exact risk patterns in skydiving fatalities are not well known, but incomplete world injury data indicate that many are preventable. A comprehensive national material for Sweden of 37 skydiving fatalities 1964–2003 were reviewed to identify risk factors. In relation to jump volume, the period 1994–2003 had a fatality rate 11 times lower than 1964–1973. Student skydivers had the highest risk of fatal outcome, often caused by instability in freefall leading to unstable parachute activation with subsequent line entanglement, or parachute activation failure. Unintentional water landings also contributed to student fatality, with life jacket malfunctions, neglect to use life jackets, and automatic reserve parachute activation devices activated by water as aggravating factors. One-third of all fatalities had an inflated and operational parachute at some point prior to injury. A drastic worldwide increase in fatal landing incidents with fast wing parachutes during the 1990s did not occur in Sweden. Every fourth fatality caused by rapid deceleration against ground or water survived impact and died during transports or in hospitals. Rescue units and health care providers can improve management of skydiving incidents from knowledge about the incident and injury mechanisms we have described, and the skydiving community can target risk factors in preventive safety work.

Objective: To analyse the characteristics of fatal incidents in fixed object sport parachuting (building, antenna, span, earth (BASE) jumping) and create a basis for prevention.

Design: Descriptive epidemiological study.

Participants: Data on reported fatal injury events (n = 106) worldwide in 1981–2006 retrieved from the BASE fatality list.

Assessment of risk factors: Human, equipment and environmental factors.

Main outcome measurements: Identification of typical fatal incident and injury mechanisms for each of the four fixed object types of BASE jumping (building, antenna, span, earth).

Results: Human factors included parachutist free fall instability (loss of body control before parachute deployment), free fall acrobatics and deployment failure by the parachutist. Equipment factors included pilot chute malfunction and parachute malfunction. In cliff jumping (BASE object type E), parachute opening towards the object jumped was the most frequent equipment factor. Environmental factors included poor visibility, strong or turbulent winds, cold and water. The overall annual fatality risk for all object types during the year 2002 was estimated at about one fatality per 60 participants.

Conclusions: Participants in BASE jumping should target risk factors with training and technical interventions. The mechanisms described in this study should be used by rescue units to improve the management of incidents.

Objective: Evaluation of a national compulsory reporting system for skydiving injuries.

Design: Self-report survey.

Setting: The Swedish Parachute Association (SFF).

Subjects: All persons renewing a Swedish skydiving license 2008 (n=1049).

Main outcome measures: Sensitivity was measured as the proportion of injury events fulfilling the reporting criterion that were actually reported; Specificity was measured as the proportion of false positives in relation to the defined gold standard. Self-stated bone fractures, shoulder dislocations and cruciate ligament injuries were labeled as non-minor injuries.

Results: The response rate was 100%. The overall sensitivity of the reporting system 2006/2007 was 0.37 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.24-0.51). With selfstated non-minor injuries as the target for reporting, the sensitivity was 0.67 (95% CI 0.43-0.85). No significant effect on reporting was found for gender, age, license level, years in the sport, total number of jumps or club affiliation. The specificity was 0.91 (95% CI 0.83-0.95).

Conclusions: The low sensitivity will yield false low incidence calculations, but risk comparisons related to the candidate predictor variables appear reasonably valid. The false positive reporting warrants assortment of incoming data and a clarification of the reporting criterions. We propose the addition of “hospitalization Yes/No” in future reporting and endorse coordinating skydiving data collection in the Nordic countries. Further studies on attitudes to reporting are necessary to understand the drivers and constraints for achieving a more complete notification of skydiving injuries. 

This article explores some aspects of the Swedish skydiving culture and its relation to injury risks and injury reporting. Seventeen skydivers were interviewed and the transcripts were analyzed with latent and manifest content analyses. The reference frame emerging from the narratives encompasses experiences of joy, passion and playfulness; and of injury, suffering and death. The risk of injury is viewed as an integrated element of the recreational activity, counterbalanced by its recreational value. From the text analysis we suggest that Swedish skydiving culture is carried by the local club; not the national association. Though the Swedish Parachute Association has far-reaching powers over the clubs, our findings imply that skydiving culture at the local drop zone and formal and informal hierarchical structures among skydivers are what really decide how rules are enforced, and if incidents and injuries are reported.