Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by londons_explore 2546 days ago
What is the chance of death per hour of skydive?

I bet it's considerably higher than per hour of crusing around on a motorbike...

2 comments

  >> bet it's considerably higher than per hour of cruising around on a motorbike..
I would imagine so as well.

"Haaf was described as an experienced skydiver with over 1,200 jumps and was a frequent visitor to Skydive Cross Keys" https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jer...

Actually it is much lower, because people who skydive tend to carefully check safety and many motorbike drivers don't - and other road users do not take care either.
Skydiving in the USA has one death per 130k jumps. Since a jump from a typical 14k feet takes about 60 seconds of freefall, that means there is a death every 2,200 skydive-hours.

There were 390 motorcyclist deaths per billion vehicle miles in the USA in 2006. Assuming motorbikes average ~40mph (between city and highway), that works out a death every 64,000 motorbike-hours.

So skydiving is significantly more dangerous per unit time.