Interesting Alert over Richmond this arvo.

[uncopilot]

Then the 'panic' started. A Virgin 737 was given a traffic alert, and told to look out for the jump aircraft and the canopies. The poor girl did sound rather stressed at that point, repeating ALERT ALERT to the 737, giving a new heading of what I thought was 020.

That's exactly how I heard it. I also remember hearing the controller in the background shorty after sounding very very distressed. And that was in the background after another controller had taken over. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the absolutely professional way that this very same controller had helped guide another pilot who was lost back to Camden. That took about 30-40 minutes of careful guidance and was inspiring to listen to. This happened less than an hour before the parachute aircraft/virgin incident. I can't help but feel compassion for this lady. She must have had a roller coaster of emotions that day.

[SuperStinker]

Unco you are correct except for one thing.i believe the 177 pilot was still trying to get back to CN when the drop at RIC happened. He subsequently arrived at CN with a partial engine failure, gear problems, and no radio. To say the least a massive distraction to the Radar controller.

[b_sta]

Can anyone confirm what time this all happened at? Wouldn't mind having a listen for myself on the liveatc archives!

[Trojan1981]

Jumping at Richmond can be very dicey at times. There was a much closer call a few years ago at NW, when two sticks of trainee paratroopers exited sim doors over the PTS DZ (at the south-western end of the airfield, can't remember the name). The stick were a bit slow in exiting and ended up descending over RWY 23, passing through the wake turb of two VERY recently departed Macchis at about 500' and hitting the ground with a thump.

[QCPog]

Aircraft VH-MQD had been cleared to drop parachutists, prior to aircraft VH-VBP being clear of the drop zone. As a result, a loss of separation assurance occurred.
The investigation is continuing.

On the ATSB website

[uncopilot]

Unco you are correct except for one thing.i believe the 177 pilot was still trying to get back to CN when the drop at RIC happened. He subsequently arrived at CN with a partial engine failure, gear problems, and no radio. To say the least a massive distraction to the Radar controller.

The aircraft was a PA 28-151. I won't post the call sign. It was most definitely handed over to Camden before this incident with comms intact and no mention of engine problems. Perhaps there was a second A/C you are referring to. There were many compliments to the controller after the hand over. As mentioned after the para incident the controller was relieved from the sector and I didn't hear her for the 4-5 hours I was on sydney's frequency after that.