She was using unfamiliar gear because they knew it would be confiscated after the jump. The pilot chute (used to initiate deployment of the main parachute) was mounted on her right leg strap instead of the usual place, which is at the bottom of the container. Muscle memory plays a huge role in high adrenaline sports because of the massive adrenaline dump that accompanies a jump. Some experienced jumpers say that she had trouble locating her pilot chute because of it being in a non standard place. When you mix the panic of not finding your PC and the massive adrenaline dump, things can go south very quickly as we've seen.
The reason her hands are in that position is because she is orienting her body to fly away from the object. Horizontal distance is crucial because there is always a possibility that when the parachute deploys, it can potentially open backwards, flying into the wall. So in this case, distance = time = a chance to correct the malfunction and not hit the wall.
Anytime something BASE jumping related is posted, there's always a massive amount of misinformation that accompanies the post. Just looking at this thread, it seems that it's filled with blatantly wrong information, shit opinions on how people should live their lives, and idiots who are so quick to claim these acts are reckless with no basis besides their biased opinion. For instance, it users like u/allwordsaremadeup who really highlight these facts.
I never hear the same negative case made for: big wave surfers, rock climbers, downhill mountain bikers, skateboarders, aerobatic pilots, extreme kayakers, cave divers etc. It seems that as soon as someone puts on a parachute, they deserve to slam into the ground because they are a terrible human being. The general public doesn't realize that the barrier to entry for BASE jumping is extremely high, so it's not just joe shmoe going out and reckless. I've put hundreds of hours into learning how to skydive proficiently before even approaching BASE jumping. Then I spent another hundred hours plus learning how to correctly pack a BASE parachute, study weather and its effects, practicing exits etc.
The only irony in this thread is lamenting how people choose to live their lives. Then they try to solidify their arguments by saying things like "it puts other people at risk", "think of their families", "they're so selfish", and on and on. It's akin to the think of the children argument to me. Is it inherently selfish? Sure, but so is all the other extreme sports that I listed above. They all can lead to grave injury and death, but such is the nature of these activities. It's almost laughable hearing someone who's never even participated in them trying to be moral policeman of it's participants. At best it's ironic and at worst it' so hypocritical it almost hurts. It probably stems from some deep rooted repulsion that they feel when they examine their own unfulfilling lives so they feel the need to lash out at others of whom they are jealous of, because they cannot reconcile with their own deficiencies.