Navy: Parachute malfunctions likely led to SEALs' deaths

The Navy has determined that the parachuting deaths of two local SEALs in Arizona last year were accidental and likely the result of gear becoming tangled during dangerous training.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Thomas Valentine and Chief Petty Officer Lance Vaccaro died while conducting high-altitude drops near the desert town of Marana.

Valentine, 37, died Feb. 13 when his parachute failed to open properly during a night jump, according to a Navy investigation. He was attached to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group at Dam Neck Annex. Valentine is survived by a wife and two children in Virginia Beach.

Rear Adm. Garry J. Bonelli, head of the Naval Special Warfare Command, agreed with investigators that the parachute malfunction was most likely caused by poor body positioning at the beginning of the jump. Valentine’s death, he wrote, “resulted from the high risk nature of the training he was conducting” and not from systemic failings.

Vaccaro, 35, suffered fatal injuries during a jump less than a month later, on March 6, when his main parachute malfunctioned and spun him down to the ground, according to a separate Navy investigation. He was assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL team.

Bonelli wrote that Vaccaro’s death was due mainly to equipment malfunction caused by rapid loss of altitude and changing circumstances in the air. Vaccaro also failed to follow emergency procedures during the rapid fall, the report said.

The two deaths led the Naval Special Warfare community to stand down for a day in March to assess safety procedures during training and combat. The two reports, known as the manuals of the judge advocate general, were released on Friday.

The report on Valentine described him as an experienced jumper and military free-fall parachutist with more than 300 jumps under his belt. In the days preceding the accident, he had completed five similar free-falls with his unit.

On the day of the accident, Valentine jumped from the C-130 plane along with other members of his unit. The plane was cruising at 130 knots at an altitude of 16,000 feet, or about 3 miles, according to the report.

Shortly after his jump, Valentine radioed his colleagues and told them he was “in a bad situation and unable to cut away his main parachute.”

He had deployed his main parachute, but the lines wrapped around his body, weapons and gear. The Navy estimated he was falling at a rate of less than 130 mph.

Investigators believe he tried unsuccessfully to cut loose his main parachute. Still entangled in it, he was unable to deploy his reserve chute before reaching the ground on a golf course about 50 miles from the airfield. A man walking his dog heard the crash and found Valentine’s body, the report said.

Investigators determined that Valentine’s parachute was properly rigged and that his squadron had followed proper procedures.

Vaccaro was also a veteran jumper, well-prepared for a routine morning training jump, according to the second report. The plane left Pinal Airpark in Arizona in clear weather and climbed to 12,500 feet, where Vaccaro made his jump.

He free-fell for 7,000 feet and opened his canopy at an altitude of 5,500 feet. He started a right turn that turned into a spin. He tried to stop the spin by releasing his brakes, but he continued to accelerate.

Investigators could not pinpoint the cause of the spin, although they found his equipment met safety standards. By the time he deployed his reserve parachute, he was too low and it did not fully inflate.

He was seriously injured by the crash and died despite receiving prompt medical care.

The report noted that circumstances had made it difficult for Vaccaro to check his altimeter and determine how high he was. It suggested reviewing the equipment and possibly giving jumpers an audible or flashing alarm to remind them when they reach 3,500 feet, the recommended altitude to start deploying a reserve.

The report also recommended that training be filmed.

Lt. Nathan Potter, deputy spokesman for Naval Special Warfare, said the command tries to control training risks, but he added that military free-fall jumps are inherently dangerous.

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com