An RAF teacher filmed her personal dying when her parachute did not open in a 12,000 ft free-fall leap.
Extremely skilled Sergeant Rachel Fisk, 32, died immediately seconds after filming different parachutists falling in tandem in an journey coaching train.
Her closing frantic moments have been captured on the GoPro digital camera hooked up to her helmet as she plummeted to the bottom at 120mph.
Her plunge in a jumpsuit with ‘wings’ hooked up to her arms was seen by a taxi passenger on the M40 in Oxfordshire, who rang 999.
A senior RAF supply stated: ‘It was a freak accident, an absolute tragedy. I hate to assume what Rachel’s final ideas have been.’
Extremely skilled Sergeant Rachel Fisk, 32, died immediately seconds after filming different parachutists falling in tandem in an journey coaching train
Her closing frantic moments have been captured on the GoPro digital camera hooked up to her helmet as she plummeted to the bottom at 120mph whereas videoing the observe in Oxfordshire
Now a army investigation has discovered that she didn’t die in useless as a result of her movie exhibiting what went mistaken in her leap might assist to forestall one other tragedy.
The horror unfolded in September 2021 at RAF Weston-on-the-Inexperienced airfield close to Bicester when Rachel was a part of a workforce conducting an train with catering workers from RAF Marham, Norfolk.
She was free-falling as a digital camera operator filming the tandem jumps, through which a novice is hooked up to an skilled parachutist. She had accomplished three jumps however earlier than the ultimate one she determined to make use of her second parachute system, telling colleagues she had seen twists within the rigging traces of the primary parachute, which she would kind out later.
The Defence Security Authority Service report stated the ultimate leap started with out incident and he or she was the final parachutist to drop from the Cessna airplane. She started filming one of many tandem pairs in free-fall till that they had descended to an altitude of about 5,000ft, when the tandem pair shot upwards after deploying their parachute.
The report stated Sgt Fisk continued to free-fall, passing by a skinny layer of cloud earlier than coming into view from the bottom, the place she was ‘displaying a small quantity of physique motion’.
Seconds earlier than her dying, her helmet digital camera panned upwards, revealing that her reserve pilot ‘chute had grow to be entangled and couldn’t correctly deploy.
The final picture was taken 0.034 seconds earlier than affect, when Sgt Fisk appeared up one final time.
Initially RAF workers on the bottom assumed she had landed safely in an space subsequent to the airfield. The bottom crew rang her cellphone however, when she did not reply, the Cessna from which the parachutists had jumped was ordered to seek for her.
She couldn’t be situated, emergency providers have been referred to as and a Nationwide Police Air Service helicopter joined the hunt.
The passenger in a taxi on the M40 had referred to as 999 at 5.30pm and reported ‘seeing somebody falling from the sky’. By 6.08pm, the helicopter had discovered Sgt Fisk’s physique.
The report discovered that Sgt Fisk’s parachute failed due to air turbulence produced by her physique place throughout free-fall.
It additionally discovered that her leap go well with, which was non-RAF situation and fitted with wings, might have contributed to the tragedy.
The report stated the one means investigators have been capable of decide what occurred was by imagery from her GoPro digital camera.
The report stated: ‘With out this data the investigation would have been solely reliant on imagery captured on the scene publish the accident. The panel acknowledged that it could have probably made very completely different conclusions primarily based on this data alone.’
Sgt Fisk, from Nuneaton, joined the RAF in 2011 as a coaching teacher and served at RAF Wittering and RAF School Cranwell earlier than being chosen as a parachute teacher at RAF Brize Norton, the drive’s prime coaching college.
In 2020 she moved to ship Joint Service Adventurous Coaching at RAF Weston-on-the-Inexperienced.
Her household stated in a press release: ‘It’s with nice disappointment that we mourn the dying of our pricey daughter, Rachel. She lived her life with pleasure and thoughtfulness for others and beloved the profession she had chosen. Rachel might be missed by so many.’
The RAF stated: ‘Our ideas stay with Sgt Fisk’s household. The inquiry into this tragic accident is now full and we’ll rigorously think about the suggestions and take obligatory actions.’
