A very bad case of airmanship on the part of the Chipmunk pilot, particularly as he never came forward
That's assuming he even saw the jumper, which of course, he may not have.
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Very lucky not to have been hit,
speaking as a pedant, this isn't strictly true, instead the reverse would be a better way of saying it, namely that he would have been very unlucky had he actually hit the aircraft.
Consider if he was actually trying to hit the a/c (in the manner of James Bond driving the motorbike off the cliff to catch the Porter), you would cosider him quite fortunate if he succeesed. If however he missed, you would simply say "Well, what di you expect? What were the chances of pulling that one off?"
That's assuming he even saw the jumper, which of course, he may not have.
Yes it's true he may not have even seen the parachutist. Having said that, the Aircraft flew through an active drop zone, which in itself is very bad airmanship.
The report also states that after the near miss the aircraft , turned and left the scene in the direction from which it came (i,e, did a 180, and left the scene sharpish!), It seems he had at least some idea of what had just happened.
He/she then never came forward despite extensive attempts at tracing the pilot (which included contacting the operators of chipmunks with the same colour scheme).
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instead the reverse would be a better way of saying it, namely that he would have been very unlucky had he actually hit the aircraft.
So, so true!!
Amazing video, the heli vid also looks rather uncomfortable!
Stay out of a designated parachuting area in the first place!
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after the near miss the aircraft , turned and left the scene in the direction from which it came (i,e, did a 180, and left the scene sharpish!), It seems he had at least some idea of what had just happened.
Thereby proving that he was a double moron.
What was his intention in doing a 180? Come back through the drop zone and try to mangle another parachutist?
As for not being able to trace a rare aeroplane in a distinctive colur scheme......someone isn't trying!
The heli video is typical of my first attempts (on the simulator). Many many times I couldn't get it off the ground without doing just that unless I applied full 'throttle' and sorted it out at altitude. However, with the prospect of my first REAL helicopter lesson, I persevered with doing 'lifts' JUST off the ground and lowering as soon as instability set in so that when I DID take the controls proper I was able to impress the instructor
I've just re-run the Para-Chippie video several times, pausing it, and seeing where the Chipmunk came from. In fact it was the Para that dropped 'onto' the 'plane (I'm not blaming the para), so the pilot of the 'plane would almost certainly be unaware of the guy dropping from above (and may only have seen him - if at all - at the very last second, too late to take effective avoiding action). The crime was the presence of the Chipmunk in the dropping zone AND not keeping a look-out for 'fallers'. However, the chances of a direct hit were, as stated, very slim.
the a/c is plainly in the frame long before the shouting.
The aircraft being in the frame is hardly surprising. In fact it's to be expected.
Two objects on a collision course toward each other maintain a constant bearing and two-dimensional relativity to each other, otherwise they wouldn't be on a collision course. This means they do not appear to move very much from the view-point of an observer on one object, depending on the size of the other object and impending impact point. A car, an aircraft, whatever simply grows larger and larger in the view until it is noticed and action is taken or a collision takes place.
As the human sight system is designed to bring attention to moving objects (sabre-toothed tigers, etc) the approaching aircraft is not easily noticeable, especially against a mottled background and especially by a sky-diver who is thinking about his altitude, checking his altimeter and preparing to deploy his canopy. How many of you saw it on the first viewing, before it flew past the guy??
As for the pilot, he has the same problem with a "stationary" object not being obvious to him. As the skydiver was in a relatively high position in the pilot's field of view, my guess would be he never even knew the skydiver was there or how close they all came to death.
A bit churlish to hang the pilot for not knowing about the airprox at the time.
Also, I don't agree with Parachutist #1's claim that the Chipmunk was in a "hard right bank turn", indicating he'd realised what was happening and was getting out of Dodge. He looks to have less than 30deg AOB on.
Edited after having read through the Airprox report.
There was a similar incident at Luton many years ago. Vauxhall Cars arranged for some para( I think the army demo team) to land as opening of their annual sports day. Paras thought Vauxhall had co-ordinated it, Vauxhall thought the paras had done it. Result - they drop just as a BR31 takes off ( I said it was many years ago). Brown trousers all round.
