On Thursday 29 September 2016, an American BASE jumper, Eric Dossantos (30) from San Diego, California, survived a wingsuit crash above Chamonix. Eric, an anti-terrorism and security operative in the U.S military, made a WiSBASE* launch from the Aiguille du Midi (3842 m), in the Mont-Blanc massif.
Eric followed his flight plan, turning right towards the Plan d'Aiguille Mid-Station. On approaching the mid-station, he was low on altitude and followed Plan B, turning left and taking the Cheese Grater line. Flying in the couloir with very close proximity to the trees, he appears to have not followed the usual exit, but deviated right, out of the couloir, at tree top level, but without sufficient altitude to avoid impact. Contact with the first tree tops was at about 90 mph. This allowed for rapid deceleration that terminated the flight but without fatal impact.
According to the Mashable website, Dossantos spent three hours unconscious on the forest floor, where trail workers found him. It's understood that they called the Chamonix PGHM, a helicopter was despatched and the unconscious Eric was flown to Annecy Hospital, where he regained consciousness.
Eric has suffered multiple injuries. He has fractures to the left scapula, left clavicle and 3 left side ribs. Also, he has a left hemopneumothorax grade 1, liver laceration, evidence of head trauma, with multiple scalp lacerations and abrasions to the left side of his neck.
The full extent of his head trauma is unknown but he is regaining memory of the accident. Eric has a good medical insurance. However, it is been proposed that he should have Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) to reduce swelling in the cranium and to optimize blood flow to any compromised brain tissue. Even with Eric's good medical insurance, it's not going to cover the HBOT.
Eric's friends set up a GoFundMe page where they hope raise funds for the HBOT and other remedial services that he might require.
Eric captured his wingsuit flight on his helmet-mounted camera. On Tuesday 25 October, about four weeks after the accident, he uploaded the video to YouTube.
You can see the extraordinary video here.
You can contribute to his additional medical costs here
*WiSBASE: Wingsuit Base Jumping is the sport of wingsuit flying. WiSBASE technique is proximity flying, which is flying close to the faces and ridges of mountains.
According to the statement of Dossantos on BASE jumping site TopGunBase, he said that everything was going pretty well in the jump, "It wasn’t until about the last five seconds that I felt the trees below me getting closer than I expected or wanted. Everything before that felt flyable to me".
In the same interview he provided some information about his WiSBASE progression and the causes of his accident: "I’ve been skydiving for 4 years (900 total/550 wingsuit), and basejumping for 2 years. I only have about 80 slider-off jumps, about 40 tracking jumps, and 105 WiSBASE jumps. My WiSBASE progression was: 1 balloon wingsuit jump, 2 basejumps on a Havok, then all WiSBASE on my new V-Race since then".
"I had about 70 WiSBASE jumps prior to my first flight in Chamonix, It was my second jump of the day of Aiguille du Midi. My idea was to fly a right line towards the refuge to test how different inputs would improve my approach for a fly by. I’d aim toward the mid-station, and see how high I was flying. If I didn’t like how high I was, I would just turn left to fly Cheese Grater line instead. As it turned out, I noticed early that I’d be too low to fly over the refuge, so I flew Cheese Grater".
"There were things I was not aware of in my last few seconds of flight, and some things I was aware of. But in this crash situation, I did not flinch, brace for impact, or change to a body position that might worsen my situation. My skill level and knowledge pool was not high enough to keep me from stalling into the trees, but I knew the best chance of surviving my impact into the trees was to keep a flying position at all costs".
On 5 October 2016, WiSBASE was suspended in the Chamonix valley, when the mayor of Chamonix, Eric Fournier issued a municipal order stating that, "The authorization to practice wingsuit flying in the territory of the Chamonix valley is suspended until further notice."
We are grateful to Richard Webb from TopGunBase for his help with this article.
