Safety Training Pays Off in Real World Situation

Anyone who has seen the Golden Knights perform can attest to the high degree of precision and teamwork it takes to do what Golden Knights do…and the only way to do what they do is to TRAIN. Training is a huge part of what the Golden Knights do between demonstrations, sometimes jumping up to six or seven times a day. These training jumps include everything from practicing formations to simulating emergency situations and practicing emergency procedures. The Golden Knight Creed, by which all team members strive to conduct themselves, states that “Safety is my watchword,” and Tuesday two team members got a unique, real-world chance to put that safety training to work.

Tuesday evening, during the pre-game jump into the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington before the Texas Rangers played the Minnesota Twins, two members of the team were performing a canopy relative work (CRW) maneuver. Always a crowd-pleaser, the CRW maneuver consists of two jumpers hooking their canopies together and landing together in the outfield. During their final approach into the stadium, one of the jumpers experienced a sudden gust of wind, which blew him off his planned course. Acting quickly, the jumper immediately steered himself toward the roof of the stadium, where his parachute snagged on a flagpole. The veteran jumper was uninjured, performed emergency procedures exactly in accordance with his training, lowered himself from the parachute harness and dropped onto a platform on top of the scoreboard.  The jumper safely walked away and the parachute was quickly recovered by stadium staff.  All of the other jumpers landed safely without incident.

Safety is paramount for all members of the Golden Knights and the U.S. Army.  The Team conducts extensive training throughout the year to hone their skills and prepare each jumper for performances at numerous locations. Stadium jumps are particularly challenging because of the restricted approaches and the way the structure creates unnatural wind patterns.