The pilot would have wanted us to continue flying a task today (as
he told Gerolf previously) but the Austrian team wanted to have a day of respect
for him. I hate this. The Austrian team guys were effected and didn't want to
fly.


The riser (hang strap) was broken at or near its connection to the slider (there
was no loop visible at the end of the riser which was still connected to the
glider). No one has access to the harness (which was a seven year old Skyline
harness) to check out exactly what the condition of the slider and backup was.
Obviously, the backup loop (which is there to provide a backup connection if the
slider fails) failed to stay connected to the riser.


Normally in this harness the parachute is connected separately to the shoulders,
but it is unclear how it was connected (loops or carabineer). So there were
three failures. The failure of the hang strap connection to the slider/harness,
the failure of the backup strap to stay connected to the riser and then the
failure of the connection of the chute to the harness. The loop at the end of
the bridle of the parachute was intact (unlike the case with the riser). All
three failures will be investigated further.


The chute did not fail under load and was observed after the accident to be in
good shape, therefore the pilot didn't overload the chute in freefall. The pilot
was witnessed to have been jerked up by the chute when it opened so it seems
that the connection to the harness was momentarily intact.


I'll have more news about why the failures occurred and what pilots should check
on their harnesses at the later time.