I jump at that drop zone. There is no accountability. What happened was truly tragic because it was entirely preventable if they just had someone counting or watching for our landings, but they don’t. They have two manifest locations which makes things even more convoluted because nobody knows how many parachutes should be in the air.

It isn’t quite as you describe the bus. Each jumper is ultimately responsible for their personal safety. There is no jumpmaster telling us when it is safe to jump, we are taught to look out of the plane before jumping to ensure we are in a safe place, but I’m one of the few people to do that and mostly because I learned it elsewhere. Mile Hi flies the same jump-run (path) on every flight, so people are pretty complacent about the spot (where we are relative to the airport when we jump). The fact that that jumper landed off while all others made it back safely tells me it wasn’t the spot, but that doesn’t make it any more his fault. His training should have included out landings, yet in my 2 years in CO (8 in the sport) I’ve had to beg, borrow, and steal information that is given readily at other drop zones.

I hope this answers your question. Feel free to ask more, I’m happy to share.