Above: Photo by David Cherry.
Historically, USPA required incident reporting only in very limited circumstances, such as when a student jump involved an AAD activation. This narrow requirement has left many lessons undocumented, limiting USPA’s ability to identify trends and address risks. Recognizing this gap, the USPA Board has amended the Basic Safety Requirements to expand instructor responsibility to report incidents. From now on, the supervising instructor—or both instructors on a two-instructor jump—must submit a report within 48 hours after any student jump that results in an injury that requires on-site medical attention beyond simple first aid.
These reports are for safety monitoring and data collection only and will not be used for disciplinary action. USPA keeps all reports confidential, and will remove identifying details such as names, dates and locations before entering them into the database. While USPA may publish brief synopses in Parachutist, no identifying details will be included. Strict procedures are in place to prevent third-party access. The information collected is for one purpose only: to make skydiving safer through education and training.
Incident reporting is one of the most effective tools for advancing safety in skydiving. Reports provide USPA with the data needed to:
- Track equipment issues
- Evaluate training methods
- Identify safety trends
- Adapt procedures based on real-world occurrences
When jumpers, instructors, and drop zones share what went wrong, the entire community benefits. The goal is not to assign blame, but to learn from mistakes and close calls so they aren’t repeated. Skydiving will always involve risk, but by committing to a stronger culture of reporting and learning, we can reduce those risks—for ourselves, our students and future generations of skydivers.
Jumpers, including instructors, can report incidents online at uspa.org/ir.
Angie Aragon D-30898
AFF, Tandem and Coach Examiner
USPA National Director