Lb#13

#120 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

#124  Yoann Lizeroux - 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

#125 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

#127 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

#131 Roar Røsten - Feb 28, 2009 
Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen
COD:
Description:
Yellow Ocean, Phoenix Fly Phantom

Lb#18

#135 Thibaux  ??- 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

#137 Stefan Drenchev - Tsafa - Sep 07, 2009

Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, , Lauterbrunnen, High Nose
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

#142 Bernd Strehle - 2009 Nov 28

Lb#21

#144 Darren Bull - 2009 Dec 21

Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, Lauterbrunnen, Via Ferrata 
COD: Cliff Strike (after slipping on exit)
Description:
Darren was ready for a wingsuitjump from the Pro BASE Race ramp at M?rrenfluh (Via Ferrata/ Mighty Penis). It was wintertime and therefore very icy on the exitpoint. He had a solid stance as he was wearing crampons which is typical there in the winter. As he intended to leap off he bent forward shifting his weight forward but the crampons were only afixed to the center of the shoe sole. As he pushed off, all his weight was on the leather bootie portion of the wingsuit and his left leg slipped backwards.

The slip resulted in a left banked headdown exit which led into overrotation into an uncontrolled drop. After about 4 seconds Darren did an emergency pull inside the overhung section of the cliff but the opening ended unlucky in an off-heading facing the wall. Nobody can say for sure if he had an additional problem like a line twist at that point.

Almost right after the canopy opened Darren had a cliff strike from which he never recovered. He slipped along the icy cliff face another 400m until he reached the talus with no life signs anymore. The canopy was ripped into pieces no longer able to suspend a person.

Darren had unfortunately left his helmet in his hotel so his head had been unprotected during the cliff strike. This may have caused an instant unconciousness which kept him from fighting to clear the off heading.

Second he was wearing a tight wingsuit and the cliff strike appeared 1-2 seconds after canopy inflation. Obviously this was not enough time to clear the arms completely to react adequate on the canopy's bad heading. It's not know if he released his armwings by the emergency handles during the rotating drop. This shows in some way tragic how small the margin of an uncontrolled wingsuitexit is, even more when it is totally by surprise.

Footwear is important for both landing as well as approach. Different crampons may have kept this unfortunate accident from occuring.

Lb#22

#155 Herbert Weissmann - 2010 Aug 04

Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND,  Lauterbrunnen, Yellow Ocean
COD:
Description:
This report comes from a jumper who was with Herbert.

Herbert was an experienced skydiver with 1000+ jumps and a BASE beginner. We stayed in Lauterbrunnen for some days and this was Herbert's 19th BASE jump and the first jump that day. We chose the Yellow Ocean exit because he still had slightly unstable exits and Yellow Ocean is the best spot to improve the basic skills. When he jumped he went a bit head down but was able to stabilize his position after 3 or 4 seconds. Then he made an obviously unintentional move like a beginning barrel roll to his right hand side but I’m not able to say why. Since he fell out of my sight I only could hear but not see the opening. Eye witnesses from the Air Glacier Heli base told me later he opened very low and close to the wall and had two cliff strikes immediately after opening. They didn’t see any action under the canopy so he must have been knocked unconscious by the first strike. When I found him he was still alive but died in the Interlaken hospital from the severe head injuries and loss of blood. He had not been wearing a helmet and the medic said with a helmet he might have survived but maybe with brain damages, this is mere speculation. We installed a memorial at the exit also as a reminder to make us think about what we're doing prior to jump.

Lb#23

#157 William Heidebrecht - 2010 Sep 14

Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, Lauterbrunnen, High Nose
COD: Impact - low pull
Description:
William, a Canadian firefighter and experienced BASE jumper, went to the valley and made a jump from the high nose with his Vampire 3. He opened with multiple line twists and ripped his zipper clean off getting free in a hurry but landed safely. With his V3 unusable he went to his Phantom 1. His flight was fine but at pull time muscle memory had him reaching for a leg pouch as he always did when flying his V3. After 2-3 feels he then remembered its a BOC when using the Phantom and finally pitches. As the lines came out he impacted the ground killing him instantly.

Lb#24

#160 Mike Marko - 2010 Dec 30

Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND,Lauterbrunnen , High Ultimate
COD:
Description:
This report comes from a jumper on the scene.

That morning 8 of us went up to h-ultimate ramp, 4 tracking jumpers, 4 wingsuiters. He exited last, solo ws jump. I did not see his jump, was stashing my gear, only heard the strike. According to eye witnesses at landing (3 belgian jumpers) he got unstable right after the exit, they did not see if he hit the first positive part, so he probably did not get instable of hiting the cliff in freefall. Then he was in spin and roll for a long time, he could not fix the position, then he pulled, but too late, he striked the ledge at the 1/3d of the cliff (down at around 250m level) before canopy inflation. After the strike the canopy opened, and he flew down close to the river, landed on a tree already dead.

Lb#25

#161 Gary "Muppet" Harbird - 2011 Jan 24

Object: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, L, High Ultimate
COD:
Description:
under investigation

Lb#26

#169  Rudolphe Climent - 2011 Jun 26

Nationality: French
Object Type: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, La Mousse, Lauterbrunnen
COD: tree impact on talus, Tracking suit pants and top
Description:

Account from best friend on the jump "Rodolphe, 31yo, was an experienced wingsuiter who knew every single spot in the valley. On this jump he was wearing a trackingsuit.
From the landing area, his 2 friends who had jumped before saw this:



Normal launch, he fell and tracked a short 6 seconds then pulled, high. But we saw no Pilot Chute coming out. We then supposed his PC was in tow and waited for deployment. Rodolphe began to wait too in boxing position, then he started to worry. He looked behind him, did a slight rollover, saw his PC collapsed and struggled hard to open it, modifying his body position in many ways. He impacted trees on his back with nothing out.

The bridle had entangled with the pilot chute, making a perfect knot."

Lb#27

#170 Dave "Cable Dave" Karaffa - 2011 Jul 7

 Nationality: Czech republic
Object Type: Earth
Location: SWITZERLAND, Via Ferrata, Lauterbrunnen
COD: Impact ledge , Wingsuit death
Description: first hand account from Vick Fearless
We jumped a 2-way wingsuit from the Via Ferrata exit I was on the left side with
a v4 he was on the right with an X-bird I jumped first so I did not know what happened later on
witnesses told me that he had a good exit and after like 2 seconds he started to turn to the wall
and he impacted the ledge under the exit on full speed the canopy came out on impact it gave me some hope
because i did not see how it happened but when rescue reached him they told me he had no chance.

New information:

There seem to be a potential problem with asymmetric arm wing inflation on the early X-Birds versions. Many jumpers experienced unexpected turns just after exit. The size and location of the air inlet seem to be the major factor involved.

There is a video of such incident here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ezlTXfkIM

Cable Dave's last jump was looking similar in dynamics, it's highly suspected that his left wing experienced the same inflation issue. Given the distance he was from the first jumper, it's not yet possible to say if the turbulence of the first WS played a role or not in that inflation process, but it's very not likely to be the main factor.

Lb#28

#171 Jeremy Graczyk - 2011 July 12

Lb#29

#177 Valentina Rotar - 2011 September 16
 

Lb#30

#183   Carlos de la Fuente - 2012 30th March 10.00am 

Lb#31

#184 Markus Wyler - 2012 May 19

Nationality: Swiss
Object Type: Earth
Location:Via Ferrata, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
COD: No pull
Clothes / Suit: Wingsuit

Lb#32

bfl-193  Wioletta Roslan - September 9, 2012

Lb#33

 BFL #196 Franck Agier - October 20, 2012

Lb#34

 BFL #200

Lb#35

 ? ? - 2011 Jun 22

Impact (Hiking)
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

The jumper from Czech turned back on the hike up to Buffalo and was reported missing by his fellow jumpers when they came down and could not find him. He was later found dead on the mountain wearing a tracking suit but his rig in his stash bag.