BLACKSBURG, Va. — The skydiver who crashed into the scoreboard at the Virginia Tech spring football game over the weekend is from a team based in the Miami Valley.
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Video from the crash showed the skydiver’s parachute landing between the “C” and the “H” of the Virginia Tech lettering at the top of the scoreboard on Saturday. He was later rescued by first responders.
The skydiver was from the Middletown-based Team Fastrax.
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The team released a statement of fact regarding the crash on Monday after reviewing the After Action Reports and videos of the crash, and speaking with multiple meteorologists.
It was determined before the performance that 14 knots would be the highest winds permissible for a safe jump.
“The Team reviewed several weather forecasts including the TAF (Terminal Area Forecast) at Blacksburg Airport in Virginia and they all indicated that the conditions were and would remain well below our maximum winds,” the statement read.
Twenty minutes before the performance, two wind drift indicators were deployed, determining that the winds were as forecasted.
On jump run our Ground Safety Specialists reported to the aircraft that winds at the lip of the stadium were indicating 4-5 knots and light and variable on the field. With our wind limit being 14 knots, the Ground Safety Specialist called up safe to exit to the aircraft. Three Performers exited the aircraft. The first down was jumping a Spectre 170 with our air-to-ground broadcast system, the second Performer was wearing a PD253 with a tethered 100sf VT banner, and the third Performer was wearing a PD253 tethering a 1,100 square foot American Flag.
As the 1st Performer and Team Leader entered the lip of the stadium, he was hit by a 27-knot wind shear from the opposite direction of the reported winds on exit. His canopy was severely distorted at 80 feet. He flared his canopy to reinflate the wing and landed safely. He immediately called up extreme turbulence to the other jumpers.
The 2nd Performer was outside the stadium with the banner deployed when the extreme turbulence call was made. The first of two wind shears pushed him off course, where he opted for a designated alternate landing area.
The 3rd Performer had the large American Flag which, causes additional drag and reduces the turn rate on what is already a slow responding canopy. He was over the stadium on the west sideline at 600-700 feet when the first wind shear hit. The wind shear lasted less than a minute and then dropped to the forecasted winds. With forward penetration, it was now possible to land in the stadium. While on approach in the Northeast corner flying in ¾ brakes sinking his canopy in, the second sustained wind shear out of the same direction at 27 knots hit, causing an updraft off the stands and rolling turbulence off the scoreboard. The updraft created brief lift and then changed his descent angle to straight down and backwards. With the attached flag he could not punch through the updraft. He could not cut the flag way as it might injure spectators. He could not make a left turn to the alternate because it would have been more than 270 degrees with the upper stands and a light pole being collision obstacles. He began to initiate a right turn to avoid hitting spectators and his parachute lost lift and stalled from the turbulence that was rolling off the front top edge of the scoreboard creating a vacuum.
— Team Fastrax via Facebook
The team added that an approaching storm was not a factor, as it was “well over 100 miles away.”
Meteorologists told them that an approaching cold front, a low-pressure system, and mountainous terrain may have caused the wind shears.
The team said none of its teammates were severely injured during the performance, but CBS Sports reported that the team member who hit the scoreboard was later seen with his arm in a sling.
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