About
Skydiving is the activity of jumping from an aeroplane at a moderate or high level on a free fall before landing on the ground by parachute. Skydiving could be for recreational or competitive purposes and the parachute is employed to slow a diver’s fall to the ground.
In countries where skydiving is a common practice, divers are required by law to wear two parachutes, the main parachute, and reserve. The reserve parachute must be periodically inspected and repacked by a certified parachute rigger whether it was previously used or not.
Because of the extreme nature of the sport, skydivers often use a device called Automatic Activation Device (AAD). This device opens the reserve parachute at a predetermined altitude if it detects that the skydiver is still in free fall.
Injuries and fatalities do occur in skydiving. These could be as a result of the diver’s unsafe maneuvers or error in judgement in the sky leading to a high-speed impact with the ground. Also, wind conditions can be the cause of some fatalities as a result of crosswind and downwind landing.
Also, sometimes there could be a collision between two or more skydivers under fully inflated parachutes leading to entanglement with each other. This is a very dangerous situation as the skydivers must immediately activate their reserve parachutes to disentangle from each other before reaching the ground.
Another factor that causes fatalities and injuries is equipment failure. Main parachutes can malfunction from time to time, hence the deployment of reserve parachutes which might also malfunction. However, the possibility of a main malfunction that cannot be cut away causing a reserve malfunction is a very real occurrence.
Skydiving insurance is a necessity for skydiving professionals and enthusiasts. Although skydiving may not be as high-risk an activity as perceived by non-skydivers, it is still risky activity.
However, with absolute adherence to strict operational procedures, skydiving risks can be reduced or eliminated. Therefore, skydivers must insure against eventualities associated with the sport.
Skydivers travel a lot to engage in the sport. So, insurance is very important in the case of injuries or even fatalities. Being covered by repatriation insurance would be a wise decision.
Medical insurance cover including repatriation is the absolute minimum that any skydiver should have while skydiving abroad. Insurance should include cover for non-skydiving medical emergencies too.
This blog is about skydiving insurance, types and prices of insurance coverage benefits as well as skydiving tips and advice.