Songfacts®:

• This song is about skydiving, which Dave Mustaine was into at the time - he said it helped replace his unhealthy addictive behavior.
  
  Bass player David Ellefson and drummer Nick Menza also got into it, but guitarist Marty Friedman took some coaxing. He agreed to jump if the album went platinum, and when it did, he made the leap.
• Dave Mustaine wrote this song with the band's bass player, David Ellefson. In our interview with Ellefson, he said: "Dave and I talked about buzzwords and the lingo used in and around the skydiving community. So he was throwing some ideas to me and then I would go home and pen the lyric, and bring it back in for him."
• The title refers to what happens to a skydiver when his parachute doesn't deploy: you hit the dirt at very high speed and most likely die.