Tandem terror
Courage in face of danger

By Barry Rollings
Volume 48, No. 10, June 15, 2006

Commercial pilot and Air Force Reservist, ACW Lisa Menchetti, with the type of aircraft flown the day she rescued two skydivers from near-certain death in a botched tandem jump.

Photo by LAC Allan Cooper

UNTIL now, ACW Lisa Menchetti, Air Force Reservist and pilot, has been the unsung hero who saved four lives late last year when a tandem parachute jump went horribly wrong in Western Australia.

Her feat finally came to the attention of her superior, SQNLDR Paul Falconer-West of 25 (City of Perth) SQN based at RAAF Base Pearce.

He nominated her for recognition in a Perth newspaper’s Pride of Australia 2006 program (nominations close this month) in its bravery and courage awards for her heroics at Pinjarra on September 10 last year.

Low on fuel - she helped two trapped skydivers parachute to safety after about 40 terrifying minutes.

The rescued parachutists must still be thanking their lucky stars that fate stepped in on board the Cessna C182, with the pilot Mr Travis Ivens, in the form of ACW Menchetti seeing whether becoming a skydiving pilot appealed to her.

“I can’t help thinking that helping to save these people was the only reason I was meant to be there that day in a plane without an autopilot,” ACW Menchetti said.

A commercial pilot and flight instructor herself, ACW Menchetti said that without an autopilot it was always going to be a two-person operation to free the skydivers.

“I knew I was ‘it’ if they were going to be freed,” she said. “I was wearing a parachute myself but it just did not occur to me to jump and bail out of a situation like that.

“I was a bit of a shaken mess for the rest of that day and it took me a good few days to realise that we were all very lucky to still be alive.

“It has not shaken my faith in flying but has made me have second thoughts about skydiving, though I had done a tandem jump in the past and it went OK. I’ve put aside any thought of being a skydiver pilot.

“I found it ironic that the safety harness that was meant to keep them safe almost killed them. A series of oversights and check failures almost built into a major disaster.”

Two teams of tandem skydives had been booked for a jump at 14000ft. ACW Menchetti was there to observe parachute operations.

The flight initially was uneventful as the two instructors and two customers strapped themselves to the safety harnesses on board and the craft climbed to level 14 in fine, cool weather and clear skies.

The doors were opened and the first tandem pair exited into the sound and force of the elements without incident.

As soon as the second pair jumped, the aircraft pulled to the right and ACW Menchetti saw the two skydivers were dangling from the plane. They were still attached to the safety harness inside the plane but pinned to the outside and partially under the fuselage.

Minutes went by as ACW Menchetti tried to release the offending strap. The weight and the load pulling on the strap was so tight there was no slack to undo the clip.

Unable to find anything suitable to cut the line with, she improvised by levering the clip with her keys.

She leaned out of the plane and made a cutting gesture towards the skydivers; the instructor shook his head – no knife.

ACW Menchetti suggested that because Mr Ivens was stronger, they should swap roles and she flew as Mr Ivens tried to release the trapped skydivers.

The next issue was fuel and the prospect of it running out. She worked with Mr Ivens to release them - flying at slow speeds, trying to keep height, staying close to the airfield, pulling negative Gs, keeping mixture as lean as possible. They had been airborne for a long time under desperate circumstances.

When ACW Menchetti and Mr Ivens swapped roles again, she noticed he was visibly distressed and his hands were bleeding. Thoughts turned briefly to possible alternate “soft landings” to try to save the parachutists.

Various efforts to cut the line with improvised methods proved fruitless and after a check on the skydivers she could see that one was exhausted and hypothermic.

As ACW Menchetti pulled herself back into the plane she thought about using the flaps. With the Cessna at 4000 feet, Mr Ivens pulled the aircraft engine back to idle, extended the flaps and forced the nose down trying to create negative Gs.

Finally ACW Menchetti pulled them forward and could see the clasp moving, millimeter by millimeter in her fingers until finally she released it and watched the skydivers disappear safely under a deployed canopy before closing the door.

After landing safely, they were greeted by many people giving them a heroes’ welcome and asking after their own welfare. A woman hugged ACW Menchetti, crying and saying: “Thank you for saving my boyfriend’s life”.

“The last thing any person expects in an aircraft flight is a life-threatening incident,” SQNLDR Falconer-West said.

“In this case Lisa’s skills, training and presence of mind combined to produce the necessary actions required to save four lives.”

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