C208B caravan, looks like unmodified with the P&W PT6. I fly jumpers in the upgraded ones with bigger engines.
Everyone got lucky here. A canopy over the tail can cause loss of flight control. A main parachute over the tail could be cut away by the jumper by pulling a single cutaway handle. But a reserve parachute cant be released like that. The jumper fortunately was carrying and able to get to a ‘hook knife’, like a small box cutter handle and blade, and cut the individual lines to get off the tail and into freefall. He then had to deploy a main into the garbage still over his head and hope it didnt result in an entanglement.
Personally speaking, I won’t even try iFLY.......much less jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Lol!
In my short, 2 year jump history, I had one main parachute failure with a fouling of my reserve, which I eventually cleared berfore landing:)
Turns out that jump school had the largest number of deaths and injuries in the US. I have one signature in my log book from the (infamous?) owner.