I was shown a digital video clip on Monday at Sibson that shook me to the core. On Saturday at around 1700 local the Peterborough Parachute Centre were operating from Sibson and jumping onto their DZ some 500 metres from the ARP.
Two groups of parachutists had left the LET410 from 12,000 with around 10 seconds separation. The first group's parachutes deployed causing a Chipmunk tracking along the right hand side of the A1 southbound to do a steep avoiding turn to the right which brought him directly under the second group of paras who were still in freefall. One of them was wearing a video camera helmet which captured the Chipmunk below as it turned under him. He kept looking at it as he fell past probably doing around 120 mph with a miss distance I would estimate as being in the order of 15 feet. His expletive as he appreciated the proximity was not suitable for publication.
The Sibson DZ is clearly marked on the chart and is frequently active up to FL150 with parachutists anywhere within a radius of around 3 NM. Clearly this was an avoidable near catastrophe and I have no doubt that the video will be made available as a warning to pilots of the dangers involved in flying over or near to a published parachute DZ.
There is little doubt if the pilot concerned reads this he will know now only too well the danger so narrowly avoided.
Trapper 69