Jumper Survives Parachute Problem

A smokejumper training supervisor survived after both his main and reserve parachutes malfunctioned when he jumped from 1,500 feet.

The incident prompted the U.S. Forest Service to suspend use of the new model of parachute that Everett Weniger was wearing.The disclosure was made in the Wednesday editions of the Missoulian newspaper.

Weniger, training foreman at the agency’s Aerial Fire Depot in Missoula, was the first one out of the aircraft during Monday’s jump with rookies above Camp Menard, northwest of Missoula. He was the only jumper wearing the new FS-14 parachute, which the Forest Service planned to phase into its smokejumper program this fire season.

“I checked a twist in my lines, then looked up to check my canopy. Only half of it was there,” with the other half still folded inside the pack, Weniger said.

As he started spinning toward the ground, Weniger pulled his reserve parachute. It dropped, unopened, below his feet.

“I took all the line and pulled the reserve back up to me and tried to figure out why it was not deploying,” Weniger said.

A videotape of the jump showed that his main parachute finally opened fully at about 100 to 150 feet above the ground. Weniger was able to veer away from the 2-acre clearing that was the landing site and into the trees.

When Weniger stopped he was 30 feet off the ground, hanging from a ponderosa pine, unharmed. He rappelled to the ground.