NEW PARACHUTING guidelines are to be introduced to ensure greater safety standards and awareness of potential hazards in landing areas.
The recommendations come in a report on an accident in Carlow in April 2007 that caused serious injuries to two men involved in a tandem jump.
The incident at a school fundraiser parachuting event at Hacketstown involved a tandem master, or instructor, and a student who were blown off course in “gusty windy conditions”.
They crashed into the windscreen of a mechanical digger parked in an adjacent field.
The report by the Department of Transport’s air-accident investigation unit described how five parachute jumps had taken place safely on the day.
All managed to land in the designated landing area, although jumping had to be abandoned for an hour due to high winds earlier in the day.
It said the jump that ended in the accident took place in conditions which, although breezy, were considered suitable.
However, the report added, “meteorological analysis indicated that the general gusty nature of the airflow had the potential to suddenly alter the ground speed of a parachute”.
It described how the tandem jumpers were blown from their landing path and how the instructor had to take evasive action to avoid them colliding with three sets of power lines or landing on the road.