Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:03:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Eddie Woo Add to Address Book Reply-To: ewoo@rocketmail.com Subject: Official report of Meni Raviv's fatal accident @Torrey To: sfbapg@lists.aggroup.com Cc: aircal@ix.netcom.com Hello All, Dave just handed the press release and the results of his investigation over to me about a half an hour ago. I have also included my posting from yesterday. Sorry about the formatting. __________________________ Hello Everyone, There has been quite a bit of misinformation about the incident that lead to the death of Meni Raviv, an instructor at Torrey. We had a debriefing tonight where everyone had a chance to review the video of the incident. Dave Jebb, Gabriel Jebb, and Ki Hong, three instructors at Torrey, conducted the debriefing (Dave is also the owner). It was quite an emotional moment for Ki Hong because he has survived from two similar incidents. He is a ten time Korean national paragliding and hanggliding champion and a former Edel designer and test pilot. Ki is partly responsible for many of the advances in paraglider design in the late eighties through the early nineties. Ki was involved in two accidents like the one Meni died in. Ki was fortunate to have survived and recovered from a severed spine. Meni was a former Israeli paragliding champion and a test pilot for many of the paraglider designs that have come out in the past decade. Although I did not always agree with him in his teaching methods, I will say that he was the hardest working instructor I have had the privilege to be taught by. His students and their safety always came first. Unfortunately he did not always practice what he taught. Dave has a final report available on the incident and has agreed to let me post in on this list. I will make it available tommorow. Let's all try to remember that speculation on an incident for the purposes education and awareness is encouraged but criticism without the full facts is irresponsible. Eddie Woo P.S. if anyone would like to make a contribution to Meni's family please send a check to: Torrey Pines Gliderport 2800 Torrey Pines Scenic Dr. La Jolla, CA 92037 we will be wiring the funds to his family in Israel later next week __________________________ PRESS RELEASE: On September 15,1998 at approximately 1721 hours advanced paragliding instructor Men Raviv, age 38 was fatally injured as a result of a paragliding accident while flying at the Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla California. Mr. Raviv had extensive experience as a pilot with over 2,500 hours' air time logged. He was a champion intenational pilot who flew on the Israeli Paragliding Team. He held instructor ratings in Israel, Great Britain and the United States. At the time of Mr. Raviv's death he was recreationally piloting a high performance glider. Flying conditions were marginal with winds out of the West-Northwest at approximately 6-7 miles per hour. These wind conditions make flying less desirable due to the turbulence and the down wind effect during flight. This type of wind condition also makes gaining high altitude difficult. Mr. Raviv bad been performing maneuvers for approximately one and one half-hours prior to his accident. Although Mr. Raviv was a world class pilot, he had infinitesimal safety margin to conduct such maneuvers so near the cliff's edge. At the time of his accident he was flying between 350 and 375 feet above mean sea level. His glider went into a full collapse and then stalled. Mr. Raviv fell approximately 150 feet before he struck the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Paragliding is a recreational sport. Like any sport it has its dangers. The training and technological advances in todays paragliding make the sport no more dangerous than surfing, scuba diving or mountain biking, or for that fact driving down the freeway. The easy and built in safety features designed into today's equipment will often time create a complacency in the pilots mind. Accidents like this are seldom the result of equipment failure but rather an error in judgement. When one takes for granted the special bond between the forces of nature, a pilot and wing, the ground is very unforgiving. Most paragliding pilots do not fly a high performance - or competition wings, but rather a beginner or standard rated glider High performance aircraft are faster, more unstable and inherently more unforgiving. The majority of pilots to not perform stunt flying or extreme maneuvers, which is also very risky. Most paragliding pilots are not dare devils, but rather white-collar professionals, middle aged, within the middle to upper income wage brackets. Thousands of pilots fly daily and enjoy the pure invigorating love of one of life's more challenging and rewarding joys. .. the freedom of flight. Yet is often seems that the only time our citizens hear of this sport it is in the context of mayhem and death. In Mr. Raviv3s mishap, he made the ultimate sacrifice. But please let us not forget the thousands upon thousands of free flight pilots who continue to pursue their passions of paragliding and hangliding daily, without incident nor harm. Mr. Raviv's death will have been in vain if we only focus on his dying. Mr. Raviv left a family of 50 + students who loved, learned, respected and appreciated his devotion for the poetry inherent in the sport for which he gave his life. _____________________________________ TORREY PINES GLIDERPORT 2800 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 Phone (619) 452-9858 Fax (619) 452-9983 E-mail aircal@ix.netcom.com Like so many accidents, Meni Raviv's fatal crash could have been avoided. Upon review of the entire incident, I can only surmise that complacency and pilot error were the contributing factors in this fatality. The following circumstances were the primary contributing factors, which I believe, lead to the accident: 1. Poor conditions: Winds were marginal, from the West-northwest to Northwest. As a consequence there was turbulence close to the ground and the lifting air was compromised. The northerly winds also created a much faster downwind ground speed than normal. Furthermore, the pilot fell into westerly facing deep ravine and very possibly rotor and turbulence compounded the possibility of recovery; 2. Extreme maneuver: The victim was performing extreme maneuvers at the time of his death. Just prior to his full frontal collapse, he was conducting a series of porpoising drives. With each drive the outward and inward swing motion became more extreme. At the same time his ground clearance lessened; 3. Ground Clearance: At the time of his frontal collapse I estimate that the pilot was approximately 0-25 feet above the ridge which is 350-375 MSL. He was approximately 100 - 150 feet west of the crest of the ridge. The final point of impact was approximately 150-175 feet below the cliff; 4. Wing loading: The victim was flying an extra large glider which was not unusual during light wind conditions. In this case he was 35 pound under the plague weight range. This would mean that the glider would be more susceptible to collapses and less stable in violent maneuvers 5. High Performance Glider: This final item may or may not have necessarily been a causation factor. It is a well-known fact that higher performance gliders generally requires more pilot input when something goes wrong. After closely viewing the videotape of the accident, I am convinced that the glider recovered remarkably well in a very short space. The videotape depicts the following: A full frontal collapse about 0 - 25 feet above ridge level. The glider wing tips accordion together and the pilot drops approximately 50-75 feet and the wing fully inflates. It appears that lust before and at the time of inflation the pilot brings his brakes down to about seat level. At this very moment the victim is facing the cliff in an eastward direction and very close to impacting the face of the cliff. Just before the glider disappears you can see the left wing tip moving backwards and the screen becomes empty. One hanglider pilot, who was the only witness to observe the victim after he fell below the cliff level1 describes what is not depicted in the video after this point. He states that the wing fully inflated and suddenly he started "falling backwards." The hanglider pilot who was well in front of the impact area before the victim's glider came to rest did not witness the final impact. I conclude the following after closely examining the scene, the video and the victim's body: Upon inflation1 the victim was within 50 feet of impacting the cliff. I believe he pulled his left brake very hard to turn left and avoid striking the cliff. The radical action consequently placed the left wing into a stall. The glider fell backward and went into a negative spin. I would estimate that the pilot fell another 50-75 feet before coming to rest. The victim's body was found lying in a deep vertical ravine Evidence indication that he slam into the vertical ravine at a high rate of speed headfirst. Sincerely, David Jebb instructor Southern California's Premier Paragliding and Hangliding Training Center Sales Service3 Training, Certification, Tandem Instruction, Tours and FLYING UNITED STATES HANGLIDING ASSOCIATION __________________________ P.S. if anyone would like to make a contribution to Meni's family please send a check to: Torrey Pines Gliderport 2800 Torrey Pines Scenic Dr. La Jolla, CA 92037 we will be wiring the funds to his family in Israel later next week ____________________________ Eddie Woo ewoo@rocketmail.com P.S. Meni was buried in Israel yesterday. There were two thousand mourners at the funeral.