Manufacturing or Assembly Flaw

Jumpers may be considered as consumers of parachute equipment. As such, they expect that equipment is manufactured and assembled properly.

On rare occasions the manufacturer or rigger assembling the equipment fails to ensure safe equipment.

1982: Craig Fenstermaker, B-11652, reported that the left rear riser was not sewn together. It was only glued. Upon jumping, he had a spinning malfunction, cutaway and successfully deployed his reserve. The gear was new as he was making a gear transition from a ripcord with Capewells to a hand deploy and 3-rings. Adequate training and practice of emergency procedures allowed Craig to tell us about his experience.
Not only did the riser manufacturer miss the unsewn riser, so did Craig when he assembled the main.

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