We regularly made jumps in the water off White Beach, on the east side of Okinawa, and at a drop zone in the interior. We made a drop in the interior DZ (drop zone) for the first time since we had lost the use of the facility. The problem occurred on a jump when a spotter chute hung up in the door of the HU-16B Albatross amphibian aircraft assigned to our unit. These spotter ‘chutes had a 50 pound circular weight, with a clip for the small parachute. The parachute was packed into a bag, which was secured with 85 pound break-away cord. On the other side of the bag was a 15 foot-long line which attached to the plane. When the jumpmaster threw out the spotter chute, the break-away cord broke, allowing the parachute out of the bag (just like our regular deployment bags for the large parachutes). The jumpmaster then simply pulled the bag back into the plane, and watched to see the wind drift and where the parachute landed. This allowed him to line up the plane on the spotter ‘chute, in line with the target, count up as he passed over the ‘chute, count down as he passed over the target and tap the jumpers out when his countdown reached “zero.”
But this time, there were problems. The spotter ‘chute did not deploy out of the bag. Someone apparently tied it with parachute cord, with a breaking strength of 550 pounds, rather than the break-away cord with its 90 pound tensile strength. The jumpmaster notified the pilot via radio of the hang-up, and the pilot said,
“Cut the line...”
whereupon the jumpmaster cut the line. But the pilot went on to say,
“...when we get over the ocean.”
By that time, the spotter chute, still tucked securely into it’s bag, and the weight, were on a quickly accelerating trajectory to the ground. The weight and ‘chute made a direct hit a the roof of an Okinawan family, proceeded through it as if it was not there, and demolished their kitchen table about 15 seconds after the family had gotten up from breakfast to go out. It was pure luck that no one was killed; we lost the DZ for over a year.
I have remembered this story for many years, and use it to show the importance of how we word our communications. If the pilot had instead said, “When we get over the ocean, cut the cord on my command,” we would have hod an entirely different outcome.
From my manuscript, Between Air and Water, the Memoir of an USAF Pararescueman, Copyright 2019, John C. Ratliff