I am afraid that Happy Traveler is very misinformed. What happened yesterday was a malfunction parachute on an experienced cameraman’s jump. It was his first malfunction in 10 years. Malfunction parachutes are part of skydiving as much as a flat tyre is a part of driving. Skydivers notice the problem, disconnect and open their reserve. Then Simon landed on the airfield as normal. His main chute did land in a paddock and was retrieved – we have no control over where the parachute lands but we do have radio contact with other airport users. What appears to be extremely sad about this incident today was that whoever took photos tried to sell them to a newspaper – 2 newspapers called me and asked for the storey. This person did not check with us for details on the incident or to see if there was anyone hurt or what the procedure was – they took it off their own back to e-mail the media to try and make up a story and obtain money. Sad, almost sick I would say. This type of alarmist and misinformed behaviour can affect a business and the livlihood of many people who have spent most of their life working 7 days a week.
So as you know we are deeply proud and protective of our 100% safety record here at Skydive Lake Wanaka, we have as you say NEVER had a conflict in 12 years with other airport users and our Pilots have 10,000 flying hours between them. Our investment of over $1.5 million on our aircraft alone has come about form 12 years or hard work and dedication to our business and the sport of skydiving and it is despicable that someone who does not possess ANY facts of the incident today would post such a bad piece of uninformed writing and pictures.
Yes we did take off 15 minutes later – malfunctions are a part of skydiving and our cameramen dealt with the situation in a totally professional manner. This did NOT involve a tandem parachute, there was nothing wrong with Simons equipment, high performance canopies sometimes malfunction for no reason which is why we carry a complete back up device. What this plane spotter saw was just the main parachute floating down. It is such a shame that he did not show his face and call in at the drop zone to check his facts, ensure that no one was actually hurt before writing a lot of mis informed jargon.
Today is a sad day reading this blog, and it was a complete waste of a lot of peoples time to have to talk with both the ODT and the Press who both declined to pay the photographer any money for a storey about nothing.
We invite Happy Traveler to our drop zone to and come and see how we run our operation and talk through some of the real facts about skydiving so next time they do not jump to their own conclusions about malfunctions or down wind landings.
QUOTE
Breaking News!!
I was out at Wanaka airport to photo the AirNZ flight, and was watching the skydivers whilst I was waiting. Saw a skydiver come down, and then noticed what appeared to be a streamer also coming down. I thought that they must have dropped something. Then I noticed that they were falling much more than the others, then noticed what looks like a canopy floating down, this later came down in the fields behind Wanaka airport. Saw the Skydive Wanaka van quickly going up the hill, presumably to retrieve the two parts.
*img snipped*
What was amazing that within 15 minutes, they were taking off again with more skydivers. If that had been me, then I would have checked all the chutes throughly before going again.
I am trying to get more details now.
Another safety concern that I have about Skydive Wanaka is their habit of landing downwind, when all other aircraft are using the into wind direction. Not only that, but they do a very small circuit so tend to cut in with a curving final approach. Given that there are a lot of helicopters and aircraft flying (including perhaps some non-radio) then it looks like an accident waiting to happen.
Watch this space, as they say!!
Smooth landings.[/quote]
Last edited by Jools27 on Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: HCP: correcting quote tag
