Dudeman wrote: “ First, I don't think that a spinning, tumbling, out-of-control freefall necessarily results in a no-pull. If Cooper's got the nerve to pull off the hijacking, I'm guessing that he has the presence of mind to pull. One puts the rig on and familiarizes one's self where the ripcord handle is. However out of control one may be, the handle is still in the same spot. I've seen people pull in some pretty f-ed up positions, and they get open.�

Yeah. That was me in 1968 trying to learn stable freefall techniques prior to the age of tandems, windtunnels and AFF jumpmaster assisted freefall. I got into some really awful tumbling spins trying to teach myself how to fall stable. Somehow I always managed to get a clean opening even though I pulled in the middle of total chaos. I think some fatalities result from a panicked tumbling jumper mistakenly pulling on something other than the ripcord (such as harness webbing) and pulling on it desperately all the way to impact.

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