Is a Backpack as Good as a Parachute When Jumping Out of a Plane?
Relying on two locations and only two kinds of aircraft gave the researchers quite a skewed sample. But this sort of problem crops up frequently in studies, which was part of the point Yeh and his team were trying to make.
Still, photos taken during the experiment show the volunteers were only too happy to take part. “I think people are laughing all of the way to the ground,” Yeh says.
Oh, there’s one important detail here. The drop in the study was about 2 feet total, because the biplane and helicopter were parked.
Nobody suffered any injuries. Surprise, surprise. So it’s technically true that parachutes offered no better protection for these jumpers than the backpacks.
“But, of course, that is a ludicrous result,” Yeh says. “The real answer is that that trial did not show a benefit because of the types of patients who were enrolled.”
If they had enrolled people at high risk for injury, that is people in flying aircraft, the results would have been quite different (not to mention unethical).
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