How safe is skydiving?

Skydiving is a popular sport in the U.S., and in 2022, around 42,491 USPA members made approximately 3.9 million jumps at more than 208 USPA-affiliated skydiving centers across the country (for an average of 92 jumps per member). In 2022, USPA recorded 20 fatal skydiving accidents.

Each fatality is a heartbreak for the skydiving community, which has collectively taken steps each year to learn from these events and improve the sport. Subsequently, better technology, improvements to equipment and advancements in skydiver-training programs have made the sport safer than ever before.

USPA (then called the Parachute Club of America) began keeping records on annual fatalities in 1961, and that first year, PCA recorded 14 skydiving deaths. The numbers increased significantly over the next two decades, peaking in the late 1970s, when fatalities were in the 50-plus range for several years. The annual number of deaths stayed in the 30s through the 1980s and 1990s before beginning a slow, general decline after 2000. In 2021, the annual fatality count hit a record low of 10. 

Tandem skydiving—where you’re attached to an experienced skydiving instructor for your jump—has an even better safety rate, with one student fatality per 500,000 jumps on average over the past 10 years.

What are the risks involved?

Like any outdoor sport, skydiving involves inherent risks, but proper preparation and good judgment can minimize the vast majority of them. If you’re unfamiliar with skydiving, you may think that equipment failure causes most skydiver deaths. Although no equipment can be perfect, modern parachute equipment incorporates advanced safety features and undergoes testing in conditions that far exceed the stresses it will endure on a normal jump. Each parachute system is equipped with a main and reserve parachute, and all student systems include an automatic activation device, which is an electric device that will release the reserve if the main parachute does not deploy. At least ninety percent of experienced skydivers also equip themselves with this device. Skydivers train and retrain each year to handle malfunctions. In 2021, one out of 721 skydivers reported using their reserve parachute.

The reality is that the vast majority of skydiving accidents are a result of simple human error. Many of the accidents occur because the jumper—oftentimes an experienced skydiver who is pushing the limits— makes an error in judgement while landing a perfectly functioning parachute.

What about jumping out of a “perfectly good” skydiving aircraft?

Skydiving operations have a much lower accident rate than all general aviation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) categorizes the death of a person aboard an airplane—including any fatal medical incidents—as an aircraft incident. These are distinct from skydiving fatalities, which are defined as those that occur in the time after a jumper leaves an aircraft and until the landing is complete. The sole fatal skydiving-related aircraft accident in 2021 occurred when a tandem instructor suffered a fatal medical event during a flight. There were four other skydiving-related aircraft accidents, none of which resulted in any injury to a pilot or skydiver. Skydive jump pilots receive thorough training prior to flying skydivers, and that training must include aircraft-specific systems, preflight inspections, weight and balance considerations and proper fuel management. Skydivers receive instruction on how to respond to aircraft emergencies during their initial student training, and most skydiving centers reinforce this training at various times of the year, most often during USPA Safety Day in March.

USPA provides jump pilot resources including the Skydiving Aircraft Operations Manual, a Jump Pilot Training Syllabus and a Flight Operations Handbook under the Governance tab