Unbleivable photos sequence. Look on NBC news. A skydiver was landing at the airport while a Cessna was doing touch and go s , and they hit. The quaility of the photos is amazing ,and thank God no one was killed. I know the airport, it was Lakeland south, a small strip just south of Lakeland where Sun N Fun is held, lot's of ultraligths there in the past.
The AF/D makes some comment about skydiving operations on the threshold delineated by plastic buckets but this looks much further down the strip.
The still photos capturing this entire unfortunate event are posted on youtube and they are beyond incredible. How the photographer remained calm and collected to take them second by second is beyond my comprehension. It is also beyond explanation that both skydiver and pilot walked away with just a few cuts and bruises.
Skydivers and airplanes co-exist in the same environment mostly without incident. This was an accident that appears to have been unavoidable and therefore faultless. I can only hope that charges or lawsuits do not come out of this.
Last edited by Hal Bryan; 03-10-2014 at 10:22 AM. Reason: Added video.
If you look at the pics you will see he pulls the elevator up hard to try and go over this skydiver. He then stalled the airplane and she dropped a wing.
Tony
Unfortunately, this was an entirely avoidable incident. Both the pilot and the skydiver could have exercised more situational awareness to prevent this accident. At an active skydiving center, the local pilots should know to look around and especially upwards when in the pattern. That's where skydivers come from. I am always amazed how few pilots think in 3 dimensions. And the skydiver should know better than to land on or too near an active runway. They all know that's where the airplanes are. Those folks will be a lot more careful in the future.
Y'all be careful out there.
Wes
Evidently, it is entirely common for divers to come across perpendicular to the runway on final into the landing area near the drop zone, though this one was a little farther up the strip than normal .
Looks to me like suddenly having a couple hundred pounds on one wing pulled him right out of the air, made the Cessna cartwheel. Amazing that everyone was alright, thank goodness.
I agree that this was avoidable. I completely disagree that this was due to the pilot having poor situational awareness. I have been taxiing on occasions when skydivers started dropping out of the sky all around me. I didn't see the first one until he plunked down in the narrow strip between the taxiway and the runway, a handful of yards from me. At that point, I stopped entirely, and even though I was as "situationally aware" as I could have been, I never saw the others until they, too, had plunked down. I've even seen a skydiver hit the windsock pole. I'm just one pilot. How many others have had similar experiences?Originally Posted by WLIU
No matter how vigilant the pilot is, there is no way to see skydivers effectively in the last few hundred feet, especially if the pilot is in a high winged plane. And let's say a pilot DOES see a skydiver on take-off or climb-out. What are his options, assuming he has the ability to predict the skydiver's trajectory? At most small airports where I've flown with skydiving activity around, the options are very few.
As I stated at the outset, I agree that this ACCIDENT was avoidable. Why do skydivers get dropped right over the more dangerous places in the world for them and others? That being an airport, of course. Seems to me the way to do this is to take off from the airport, drop them over an an otherwise-unused area (but which would have recovery crews waiting), and then have the plane land back at the airport. This seems to be a lot more safe, especially for instances where skydiving instruction (i.e., inexperience skydivers) are involved.
Nah, makes too much sense. Besides, it would inconvenience the skydivers...
Because the FAA tells them to?
We will have to disagree that you can not see skydivers. I will agree that your average pilot is not trained or conditioned to look for traffic directly overhead. And how many pilots turn final and then fixate on the runway, no longer looking for traffic in other directions? If the chart has a little parachute on it next to an airport symbol, and/or there is a NOTAM for skydiving (and a NOTAM is required by the FAA), then your look for traffic should be more in the vertical than usual.
We share the airspace with many other aviation activities. Everyone is equal in the airspace. And it takes two to have a collision.
Best of luck,
Wes
I agree that meat bombs should not be dropped into the operational area of an airport.
The largest jump club in Seattle area has there drop zone 5 miles from the airport and delivers the jumpers back to the club by bus. Jumpers must have special training to land back to the airport. (Harvey Field)
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