The Argus AAD saved several lives. Furthermore, there were so-called justified activations where the skydiver was going too low, too fast.
In all situations the devices functioned as designed and the skydivers landed without injury under their reserve canopies.  We made these activations public via our newsletters and e-zines.

In the 2007 November issue of Skydiving Magazine, the article “AAD Incidents End Safely” questions the term “live save”, used by Aviacom. The author claims that “no one can be sure they would have died if their automatic openers hadn’t gone off”. How can one be sure that they would have survived without the AAD? Fact is that we will never know if a skydive would end up as a fatality until it is a fatality.

It is a thin line between a life save and a rightful activation. When the main canopy is pulled when the AAD activates, some do not consider this a live save, even when the device activated at the right altitude and time only seconds from impact.
How can we be sure what a real life safe is?  Obviously, when it is a no-pull there is not much left to argue about. But what if a double canopy out is created due to pulling the main too low?
If a skydiver is still in freefall at 800 feet, without an automatic activation device, the chance that he or she will not survive such a scenario is close to 98%! The spectacular drop in impact related fatalities due to the introduction of the electronic AAD speak in this matter for itself.

Emergency situations are not black or white and should therefore not be categorised as such. “A pull was made and therefore the skydiver was saving his or hers life” is a highly questionable statement since there have been numerous incidents by which the main canopy malfunctioned. This in combination with not performing the right reserve procedure often resulted in a fatality. An equal number of fatalities are due to opening the main canopy at an altitude that is too low.
Every incident should be evaluated case by case for lessons to be learned. A correctly completed live-saving report helps to determine what happened exactly.
Automatically assuming that a double canopy out is a situation that the skydiver would have survived without intervention of the AAD is not well founded.
In many cases the activation of the AAD works as a wake up call and triggers the well-trained prime response of the skydiver to pull the main.

Today’s AADs activates in Standard mode, when a skydiver has a speed of +78Mph at an altitude of 800 feet. This is approximately 6 seconds from impact. Pulling and deploying the reserve canopy takes three seconds. The timeframe between living and dying has been reduced to three seconds only! With such a narrow window, any discussion of whether it was a justified activation “only” or a “real” life save is irrelevant.When an AAD activates at 800 feet at these speeds, there is not much argument left.

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Fatality reports often mention, “An automatic activation device may have changed the outcome of this incident.” You never read “The AAD may have saved his life.” Simply because you can go up and make another skydive.
Look at the rules and regulations: The 2007 Skydivers Information Manual states that the lowest altitude you should have container opening is 2000 feet. This is 1200 feet or 7 seconds above the AAD trigger setting of 800 feet. Furthermore it says: “In the event of any malfunction and regardless of the planned procedure or equipment, the reserve ripcord must be pulled by no lower than 1,000 feet.”

Common sense and regulations clearly determine that a sport skydiver has no business still being in freefall at 800 feet. Below 1000 feet, go straight for the reserve. By pulling the main anyhow, the skydiver is performing an act that is completely out of sequence and this may end up in serious injury or even death by causing his or hers own double canopy-out scenario.
But if all goes wrong, a double canopy out still beats the alternative –no canopy at all.

Don’t forget that having forgotten to deploy the main above 2000 feet, the skydiver is already seven seconds below pulling time and has only three seconds to react.
Scientific research shows that it takes the human brain 0.7 seconds to perceive any danger and react accordingly, regardless of background and training. This leaves a reaction time of 2.3 seconds only…

Therefore, any AAD interference at that altitude and with only 2 seconds to spare is a rightful activation that most probably saved the life of the skydiver. That’s why we call that a life save.
 The activation speed and altitude are industry standard and have been proven to be correct time and time again. The Argus is programmed to save your butt only seconds before impact.

Aviacom SA does not advocate mandatory AADs. In the end the choice is yours.

Safety is not a matter of equipment, but a matter of procedures. And as we write in our manual, we sincerely hope that you never need your AAD

Make up your own mind and read about  the Argus life saves and rightfull activations so far (clicky).

William van Heerden