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Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

bmj.com

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Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#21

Post by stcredzero »

A coworker of mine once made this proposal. 5 of us would start a company. The company would buy key man insurance for everyone, then go on a company team building trip. On this trip, we'd all skydive, but one of the 5 parachutes would be non-functional...Profit!

This coworker of mine soon after left the company by storming out of the meeting room and slamming the door, then took up playing online poker for a living.

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#23

Post by jfoutz »

Reason077 wrote: post #19
oh_sigh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done over 900 jumps so I can fill you in, no references ATM because I'm on my phone. If you jump with a parachute, you will see chance of death go from 0% at zero feet, to approximately 100% at 35 feet. From there, it will remain near 100% until you reach about 600 feet, which is about the minimum distance it takes a parachute to open. Above 1000 feet and chance of death floors out near 0%

”approximately 100% at 35 feet” Not sure about that. Although chance of death would be significant, there are many cases of people surviving falls from greater heights.

There are of course extraordinary cases. There is that last tiny fraction of survivors.

But really, falling sucks. There is a reason working in solar is more deadly than working in nuclear. And the reason is occasionally an installer falls off of a roof.

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#24

Post by marcosdumay »

joker3 wrote: post #3
nabla9 wrote: post #2

Remember to reard the linked editorial for context: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/12/13/we-jumped-from-planes-w... > We conducted the PARACHUTE trial to illustrate the perils of interpreting trials outside of context. When strong beliefs about the standard of care exist in the community, often only low risk patients are enrolled in a trial, which can unsalvageably bias the results, akin to jumping from an aircraft w…

It's also essential to read the first cited article ( https://www.bmj.com/content/327/7429/1459?ijkey=3b8c1a70a8d2... ) which very much inspired this paper and is also quite a bit funnier.

$37 for 1 day access to download the paper. If that's not part of the satire, I don't know what it is.

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#25

Post by [deleted] »

Reason077 wrote: post #14
vamos_davai wrote: post #7

Would you indicate this is a satirical article? Half the time I was looking for jump height or understanding if adding parachutes to commercial aircraft that suddenly experienced breakage such as a missile would improve passenger survival.

There is obviously an element of satire, but are the authors are also trying to make some sort of statement about clinical trials?

[deleted]

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#26

Post by ericye16 »

The current title "Parachutes prevent death when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial" is exactly the opposite of the article's conclusion: "Parachute use did not significantly reduce death or major injury (0% for parachute v 0% for control; P>0.9)." Nor is it the title of the actual article.

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#27

Post by pdkl95 »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #15
b_tterc_p wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will jumping from high enough without a parachute ever decrease the odds of death than they the odds of death at a lower altitude?

Not for humans. You're thinking of cats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-rise_syndrome

This is almost certainly survivorship bias[1]. Only middle-height cats that might theoretically survive are going to be taken to a veterinarian; the cats that fell from higher heights were not included, because they were "obviously dead". Which makes "high-rise syndrome" an example of the exact type of bias discussed in this paper.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias#In_cats

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#28

Post by lygaret »

> The study also has several limitations. First and most importantly, our findings might not be generalizable to the use of parachutes in aircraft traveling at a higher altitude or velocity. Consideration could be made to conduct additional randomized clinical trials in these higher risk settings. However, previous theoretical work supporting the use of parachutes could reduce the feasibility of enrolling participants in such studies.16

> 16. Newton SI. Law of Universal Gravitation.Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687.

Re: Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft

#30

Post by nkurz »

marcosdumay wrote: post #24
joker3 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also essential to read the first cited article ( https://www.bmj.com/content/327/7429/1459?ijkey=3b8c1a70a8d2... ) which very much inspired this paper and is also quite a bit funnier.

$37 for 1 day access to download the paper. If that's not part of the satire, I don't know what it is.

That might be the suggested amount, and it is a great paper, but I think you are allowed to donate less if you choose: http://sci-hub.tw/10.1136/bmj.327.7429.1459
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