Swiss BASE Association - The Dark Side

Lb#1 #31 Xaver Bongard - Apr 15, 1994 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen (Staubbach) COD: Strike(Canopy) Description: Xaver cutaway a spinning main canopy malfunction using a two canopy BASE container (Sorcerer). The reserve opened with line twists that did not clear prior to impact. Xaver is well known, even legendary, in the climbing community for his big wall solo accents.
Lb#2 #56 Thierry Van Roy - Apr 02, 2001 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen (La Mousse) COD: Impact Description: Thierry had 100 plus skydives and about 240 BASE jumps (fifty are from cliffs). He is doing a 3-way, launching first, on his back (video person above him filmed the whole jump). Thierry took too much time to come back to a good position facing away from the wall. He attempted to make a quick quarter turn and deploy, but impacted before complete deployment of his canopy. Two days prior to his death, he did ten jumps in the valley, and witnesses attested to the fact that he is really very tired. He is passionate for the sport and loved the people who -like him- jumped for their own, and not for the show. His many friends miss him deeply. The report also included the following: "Just a few words about this site La Mousse. It is high and you can fly 9 to 10 seconds if you track like hell. But the pure vertical is not more than 6 seconds."
Lb#3 #65 Dr. Nikolas (Nik) Hartshorne - Aug 06, 2002 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Object Strike Description: Nik had 501 BASE jumps when he launched for this planned 9-10 second delay. Most of his previous BASE jumps had been low ones and he's actively working on his tracking skills. According to the one witness who saw the entire jump Nik launched head down, but looked as if he would recover. However, he deployed before complete stability is achieved. The canopy opened facing the cliff and Nik is turning it away (using rear risers as the brakes are still set when the canopy is inspected) when he landed on a ledge. At that point he had already turned the canopy 90 degrees away from the wall. The canopy collapsed and Nik fell backwards from the ledge. He impacted a second ledge with his head (this is the fatal injury) and the canopy re-inflated and flew into the wall a third time and hung there a moment. The canopy then dropped beneath him and he fell into it. He fell down the remaining part of the wall (several hundred feet) wrapped in the canopy and hitting the wall 6-8 more times. CPR is performed to no avail. Nik is a very popular BASE jumper and will be missed. He is also a Medical Examiner who, not only lent his expertise to previous BASE fatality investigations, he also performed the autopsy on singer Curt Cobain. Nik's death has caused his name to be included into the conspiracy, fans say, surrounds Cobain's suicide.
Lb#4 #66 Wofgang "Wolle" Bäumer - Aug 13, 2002 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: (unknown) Description: Local rescue workers say the jump is a two-way and Wolfgang is doing camera. They didn't say specifically what is the cause of the accident. As this is the second BASE fatality here in two weeks the Swiss BASE Association is asking all BASE jumpers to refrain from visiting the area as they iron out problems with authorities and the media.
Lb#5 #76 Fabrice Parent - Aug 10, 2003 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: strike Description: Fabrice had 500 skydives and 53 BASE jumps when he launched for this planned 9-second delay. On deployment he experienced a 180 with a full line twist and impacted the wall
Lb#6 #81 Andi K - Jun 18, 2004 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Impact Description: From a report. "Andi had 300 skydives and 30 BASE jumps. It was his 2nd jump that day and his 2nd jump from the Nose. He jumped straight, tracked, opened at around 200 meters off the ground (half-way down the face), had a 180 and hit the cliff 3-seconds later. There was zero wind. From what I've been told it was his first off-heading opening. He died immediately on impact."
Lb#7 #83 Duane Thomas - Aug 21, 2004 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Impact Description: Duane, a Kiwi with a quick smile, is a well known and experienced BASE jumper. The following is from an eye witness. "The jump is witnessed by two British jumpers and two Swiss jumpers. One Brit watching, and videoing, from the exit point, the other three watching from the LZ. This is Duane's first wingsuit BASE jump, and his first jump ever with a leg mounted pilot chute pouch. Prior to this jump Duane prepared by making 50 aircraft and 2 hot air balloon wingsuit skydives. Duane had a good exit and a good flight. Everybody saw him reach for and locate the pilot chute at what the witnesses said is a reasonable altitude. He then kept his hand there and continued in freefall. The speculation is the lack of normal groundrush (like the type he is used to when not wearing a wingsuit) might have fooled him. The Swiss are yelling at him to pull and he finally did so, at what they said is about 30-feet above the ground. The canopy lifted out of the pack tray but is no where near line stretch when he impacted in a full flight position. According to the Swiss there is no fumbling around, or looking for the pilot chute handle - all the witnesses agree on this. He reached and located the pilot chute, but just took to long to deploy it. A hard pull cannot be fully discounted at this time, but all the witnesses believe he just waited too long." This is the sixth BASE wingsuit fatality since the first one occurred in September of 2002
Lb#8 #95 Stephan Grossman - Apr 15, 2006 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Wall Strike Description: Stephan had approximately 40 previous BASE jumps, with one being from this same cliff. The jump is stowed and slider up and he did a conservative delay and tracked before opening high over the talus. He then expereinced an off heading opening and suffered a wall strike.Witness reports from the top say he should have had enough time to turn but maybe had line twists, or some other problem, not apparent from the top. Stephan was a locally well respected rigger and in the process of setting up a BASE school when this accident occurred. He leaves behind a wife and two children
Lb#9 #96 Stephane Léonide - Apr 16, 2006 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Wall Strike Description: This jumper had one previous BASE jump when he over rotated head down before pitching his pilot chute. He then experienced an off heading opening facing the cliff and is on his risers trying to turn, but he did not clear the wall in time. He continued to impact the wall until coming to rest in the talus.
Lb#10 #105 Csaba Zsiros - Nov 18, 2006 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen (La Mousse) COD: impact Description: Csaba had close to 500 BASE jumps and jumping along with two other experienced BASE jumpers. One of the other two is doing a short delay, with camera, to film the others. Csaba launched back to earth and did not start tracking until he was very close to the outcropping of the wall. When he did start his track he realized he wasn't going to make it past the outcropping and deployed his canopy, but he impacted the cliff as his canopy was opening. The canopy did fly out over the LZ, giving the other jumpers some hope, but Csaba is already dead when help reached him. Most likely he was killed instantly in the cliff strike.
Lb#11 #116 Bert Brooks - Sep 07, 2007 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Wall Strike Description: Bert was with his girlfriend Michelle on a BASE vacation in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. Conditions were good, and this particular jump occurred a bit after 2pm local time. Michelle jumped first, landed, and turned to watch Bert's jump. He was using a 34" pilot chute expecting to get full terminal airspeed but had to pitch between 5 and 7 seconds. It is unclear why, but he was too close to the wall to continue freefall. Bert pitched and opened with a 180 facing the wall. Bert struck the wall multiple times and was reported to be unresponsive after the first strike. Bert made it a point to never wear a helmet. Had he chose otherwise it could have given him a chance to fight and turn after that first strike. We will never know but hopefully will think twice ourselves about protective gear.
Lb#12 #118 Oleg Kudria - Sep 30, 2007 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Impact - No canopy out Description: This report comes from a jumping mate of Oleg's: Oleg was an experienced skydiver and had 64 BASE jumps. He came to Lautebrunnen as a part of the Ukrainian team. Oleg jumped 2-way (Oleg was lower) from Yellow Ocean. On the video we can see that he was in good tracking position and prepare to throw pilot chute on the 7-8 seconds (his hand moves to the pc). After pitching he goes into boxman and was waiting for the opening. In this position he fell down into the trees. The container remains closed until impact. He dies immediately. On the next day we checked his base gear and found that the pilot chute was collapsed. The bridle had made a knot around the pilot chute. Our guess is that Oleg took out his pilot chute and before throwing he held on to it for a bit. During this time the bridle was in air and it was “dancing” and either created a loop around the PC then or while he let go. Suggestion: Don’t hold PC if you pull it – throw immediately.
Lb#13 #119 Alexander Bogoroditskiy - Oct 09, 2007 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Impact - No canopy out Description: This report comes from a post made by 'Victor Chik'. It is the only report I have seen or received. : The jump was to be a 9-way: 4 jumpers in Vampires, 4 in tracking gear, 1 in Prodigy. Exit order: first the trackers, followed by the wingsuits Alexander was jumping in a tracksuit. He was the jumper on the far left. On the video we have a good close-up shot of his rig just before the jump. There is nothing visibly wrong with the gear at this point. The launch went well, each jumper in his assigned sector. Many video POVs reveal no collisions or bumps of any kind. There were 5 cameras + 1 from the ground. We can see Alexander's jump from two video POVs. He appears to have an efficient and stable track all the way down until deployment. He pitches at around 200m, the first of his group. Immediately after pitching he goes into boxman. The pilot chute tows after him inflated at about 1m (3-4ft), i.e. the pilot chute does not reach full bridle stretch. Quickly realizing something is wrong, Alexander moves both arms back. The first video POV ends here. The other video POV shows him falling with his legs tucked in and his arms behind his back. He is not stable at this point as he is fighting to clear the malfunction. The pilot chute is still towing after him inflated at about 1m from his back. He impacts still fighting and towing the pilot chute at forest line (the closest to the field). The container remains closed until impact, there is no part of the canopy out. He dies immediately at impact.
Lb#14 #123 - Jul 01, 2008 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Stechelberg (Lauterbrunnen) COD: Impact Description: After leaving exit point Jungfrau, a turn in flight apparently made for the purpose of descending and passing close to the first major ledge resulted in Yoan impacting said ledge.
Lb#15 #124 Ben Cannon - Aug 22, 2008 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Impact Description: No one saw the final seconds of the jump, but judging from Ben's video he went in the trees at linestretch, no real inflation occurs. A jumper from the last load (3-way, all wingsuit, Ben shot video) speculates that 3 things contributed to the tragedy: 1. Loss of attention to altitude because he was watching the others. 2. Possible missed pull 3. Low pull Ben was conscious when the others reached him. They thought it was bad but really thought he would pull through. He was airlifted to Interlaken after he was stabilised, and then airlifted to Bern because of the severity of his injuries. He did not make it to Bern.
Lb#16 #126 Simon Skovgaard Jensen - Sep 11, 2008 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Ultimate, Lauterbrunnen COD: Impact Description: This report comes from a well respected jumper at the site: The jump site where he went in on is called the ultimate. It is a great jump and not actually very dangerous itself, but getting to the exit point and the exit itself is a big mind fuck. Even after my first jump there I landed and I was shaking and I have 1700+ jumps. From what I was told afterwards it was Simon's first repel which would've added to the nerves. The exit is also technical as you can't see over the egde past a few meters and it is quite underhung for the first 50 feet. Nothing too dangerous but again, a big mind fuck as you need to push off quite hard to get clear. For me personally it is a tracking jump and not a wingsuit jump but it is not for me to tell others they can or can't jump. Again simon seemed like a safe and sensible jumper so I did not worry about him at all. We were not looking up when Simon jumped but immediatley after impact his friend came running over explaining what he had just seen He said he saw someone tumbleing and then a partial parachute coming out and more tumbling down the wall until the talus. He also said there was no way that who ever it was could have survived, so it must have been fast. From the exit point my friend told me that when Simon was about to exit he was very nervous and couldn’t get his footing in the right position to exit. (its a bit of a shitty exit point for your feet and there is some grass on a slope). When he exited he went off in a head down position with, I think, his right shoulder down,with his opposite leg kicking to get stable, before he disapeared out of view. When I got to him on the talus he was wrapped in his tangled canopy and dead, with massive multiple injures. In my view I feel that he exited a little unstable and possibly paniced because of the mind fuck related to the jump. Because of the wingsuit trapping his arms in and also his experience level, I feel he tried to fight the tumbleing all the way down either 1) until impact where the parachute bounced out and he continued to tumble and get wrapped in his canopy until he stopped. or 2) he tumbled from exit and opened his parachute to late and tumbled down to where he came to rest. I have a feeling from memory that his pilot chute was still in its pouch which would mean it was senario number 1. There is not much to do to prevent this type of death except for each and every person to know their own experience levels and not push forward to soon. This is an age old problem that will never go away. Either you make it through that stage of jumping, either uninjured, injured like a lot of people do, or dead which is still pretty rare over all with all the jumps that get made. I do think that his death has made people realize that this jump is an experienced peoples jump only and hopefully that will keep people away. A similar lesson is learnt from every fatality.
Lb#17 #130 Roar Røsten - Feb 28, 2009 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Description: Yellow Ocean, Phoenix Fly Phantom
Lb#18 #??? ??- Jun 4, 2009 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Description: Basejumper abgestürzt und tödlich verletzt Am Donnerstag gegen Abend stürzte an der Mürrenfluh in Lauterbrunnen ein Basejumper ab und zog sich dabei tödliche Verletzungen zu. Am Donnerstag, 4. Juni 2009 um etwa 1830 Uhr begaben sich drei Basejumper an die Mürrenfluh, um an diesem Tag einen weiteren Sprung zu absolvieren. Vom „Nose“ aus sprang der erste Basejumper ab. Seine beiden Kollegen stellten fest, dass er in der Luft unstabil war. Erst als sie sich auch in der Luft befanden – sie führten einen Sprung zusammen aus – sahen sie, dass ihr Kollege abgestürzt und nahe der Fluh auf dem Boden aufgeprallt war. Die Rettungskräfte der Air Glacier mit dem Notarzt konnten nur noch den Tod des Basejumpers feststellen. Die Unfallursache ist noch nicht bekannt. Entsprechende Ermittlungen sind im Gang. Es handelt sich beim Todesopfer um einen 40-jährigen Belgier. Source: Police
Lb#19 #134 Stefan Drenchev - Tsafa - Sep 07, 2009 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Cliff Strike Description: On the 9th, a group of seven went to jump from the High Nose. Stephan was the 5th to jump. His exit was perfect, but the track he performed did not separate him much from the wall. He pulled very stable but rather low and had a 180 on opening. He eventually cleared the turn but was too low and impacted on the talus. He then kept on falling and impacting, but nobody could see it clearly because he disappeared behind the trees. The canopy was fully inflated when he first impacted and the strike did not seem so hard because he was already very close to the talus, so no one thought that he would die because of the injuries. Air Glacier Helicopter Rescue was called whom arrived promptly and airlifted him to Bern. The high nose is known to be a more technical jump requiring BASE-specific tracking skill to separate yourself from the object.
Lb#20 #??? Bernd - Nov 28, 2009 Object: Earth Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen COD: Description: Mann stirbt bei Basejumper-Unfall Am Samstagnachmittag verunfallte an der Mürrenfluh in Lauterbrunnen ein Basejumper. Er verstarb noch vor Ort an den erlittenen Verletzungen. Am Samstag, 28. November 2009, gegen 1430 Uhr, begaben sich zwei Basejumper an die Mürrenfluh, wo sie über den Klettersteig Mürren-Gimmelwald zu einem Exitpunkt gelangten. Von dort sprangen die beiden nacheinander ab. Der zweite Mann, ein 41-jähriger Deutscher, prallte nach dem Sprung gegen die Felswand und zog sich dabei so schwere Verletzungen zu, dass die Rettungskräfte der Air Glacier nur noch dessen Tod feststellen konnten. Source: Police













Jurgen Ornburger, February, 2002 Impact (Hiking) Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland Jurgen is a German BASE jumper who slipped on the ice while approaching the launch point on Moussy. He fell over the edge with a packed BASE rig in a stash bag on his back.