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of skydiving for me as well! Safety and training are the most
demanding part of the job and I have a very close cooperation
with our safety and training committee. Through the years I have
been course director for numerous basic skydiving courses. I now
run the Instructor courses every year, as part of my job. These
courses are centralised and are run only once a year. All in all
there are five various Instructor courses.
Most people would consider parachuting a
dangerous sport - how dangerous is it?
You may say that skydiving is a dangerous sport, but we
have created a safety system based on long experience both
internationally as well as domestically. This is documented in
our safety manual or ‘Handbook’ as we call
it. This enables us to manage the risks at an
acceptable level. Our safety system is based on
standardisation. This standardisation includes
basic safety rules and regulations, equipment,
licenses, what is permitted at various levels of
experience, operational rules and regulations
and so forth. We only acknowledge some
manufacturers of skydiving gear. This is to
ensure that our senior and master riggers
don’t have to handle a too large a variety of
equipment, purely for safety reasons.
As a matter of history – the first known jump
performed by a Norwegian parachutist was
in 1926. However after many fatal accidents
in this early period of the sport – the last one
Ole Næss in 1937 – parachuting as a sport
disappeared in Norway. It was only taken up
again in 1963.
Are there many deaths or serious
accidents fromParachuting inNorway
each year? How many?
In Norway, modern skydiving as a sport
started in 1963. Since then there have
been 36 fatalities, 30 in Norway and 6
abroad. The last fatal accident was in
2004. If we single out our statistics from
2004 the fatality risk factor becomes one
fatality per 401,296 jumps. However due
to the comparatively low number of jumps
this statistic may not be very relevant. IPC had
a risk factor in 2008 of 1:115,000. The world
statistics for 2009 will be presented at the IPC
conference January 2011.
Since 2004 we have also had three serious
accidents which caused a substantial degree
of disability.
What is the cause of most accidents
in parachuting?
Earlier the most common causes for
accidents were equipment failure and water landings due to
less manoeuvrable round canopies. The development of Ram
Air Canopies or “squares” increased the manoeuvrability and
decreased the risk of unintended water landings. Then the
development and introduction of smooth and reliable AADs
(Automated Activation Device) decreased the fatalities. These are
now mandatory in Norway as well as many other nations.
Since the early nineties, there have been revolutions in design
and fabrics which have given us the possibilities of high speed
landings. Now we experience that many of the most severe
accidents happen under a fully functional canopy. These landings
demand both experience and skill. To minimize such accidents
we have introduced rules & regulations for wing load and design
characteristics of the main canopies, thus adapting to the user’s
experience and skills.
I assume that risk management is given high priority
in Parachuting. How do you go about ensuring that
risk management is taken seriously within your
organisation?
The Skydiving section has an Operational Risk Management
system where the Handbook gives the standards for skydiving
(as mentioned above). S&T sets out the requirement for the Head
Instructor at every drop zone (“dz”). He or she must report non
conformities within 48 hours to me. This is done online into a
database. In case of severe deviations the Head Instructor must
call me or the Head of S&T. I continuously monitor the reports
to see if something has to be done immediately. Every quarter I
send the quarterly statistics to the S&T, and annually we run a full
statistics study which we present at the annual head instructor
meeting. If there are accidents with fatalities or permanent
disability we run a separate investigation.
The members of S&T and I travel to inspect the various dz’s (18 in
total). We do a three year cycle on all dz’s – except the large ones
(3) which are inspected every year. If there is a Cessna dz (small
dz) that occasionally hires a larger airplane for a shorter period, it
is always visited by a member from S&T or me when doing so.
What are some of the main safety/risk management
issues in parachuting? Tips for our readership.
The overall challenge is that the development in the sport has
been and is so fast. It is vital that we are able to foresee what’s
coming (equipment, trends etc) and be able to prepare to handle
it. What really increases the risk factor is when inexperienced
skydivers try new trends.
Aspecific challenge inNorway is the need to prevent inexperienced
small and light skydivers downsizing their canopies. A small
“The last fatal accident was in
2004... Since 2004 we have had
three serious accidents...”
canopy with 1.1 (lb/sqft) wing load is far more agile than the same
wing load under a large canopy. To give an analogy, most parents
do not want their 18 year old kids driving Porches and Ferraris as
inexperienced drivers. Whilst this is very unlikely due to the costs
of cars in Norway, almost any kid can afford a small and radical
formula 1 sports canopy.
How much does the weather in Norway impact on
your sport? I assume that snow and rain will impact
the ability to jump but are there times when it is too
cold to parachute?
The weather has a huge impact on our sport. Our peak season is
from 1st May to 15th September. There are a few Cessna dz that
are open at weekends year around but we do 98% of our jumps
during the few summer months. We have seen a small decrease
in the amount of skydives we do, which can be attributed to the
construction of vertical wind tunnels which are a fabulous training
tool.
And finally......
Skydiving is a sports that can be performed on equal terms whether
you are 16 or 75, man or woman. In our national competitions
there are no female only competitions, and the females do well
in open and intermediate classes. The percentage of female
skydivers in Norway is 27 %.