Not sure where you get your information from, but this article does a great disservice to our sport. Skydiving is made extremely safe by the training we receive before our first jump, and throughout the time we jump. In fact every year there is a safety day, I don't ever see that for the highway driving public. The facts are that about 40 people die every year jumping out of an airplane. What can be said for the highways and expressways of America? Skydiving is many, many more times safer then driving down the Tri-State (a local express way here in the Chicago area, connects IN, IL, and WI together) and that’s only one expressway.

Your statement about the FAA no having not much to do with the sport is completely false. The DZ (drop zone) that I jump at and work is on a public airport; the FAA monitors it. We are under special watch actually because the runway runs right though an aerial flight path into O'Hare International. The FAA in its Federal Aviation Regulations, state something to the effect that the USPA of Virginia is responsible for writing and maintaining rules of the sport. Yes, It is true we are a self-policed sport and we like it that way. We don't need the feds involved in another part of our lives.

The incident that you are referring to, Jan Davis, is not the drop zone's fault. This accident was very bad luck. What happen was her main parachute failed to open properly so following her trained procedures she deployed her reserve and it inadvertently got tangled in the camera helmet she was wearing. This in no way is connected to the drop zone. All the DZ provides for experienced (those off supervised status) jumpers is a ride to altitude, and a place to land.

Please consider in the future, whom you are affecting with your articles.

Thank You,

John Reynolds

USPA Class C License holder with 137 jumps.