During this year’s National Day Parade (NDP), a team member of the Red Lions had a crash landing while executing a safety jump.
This resulted in his hospitalisation. Although he is currently in stable condition, he has also suffered injuries.
The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is now conducting a risk assessment of parachute jumps. During the review, they will look into the incident, as well as previous NDPs and previews.
Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reports that on 13 Aug, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said SAF would conduct a high-level assessment of the risks around parachute jumps.
Source: The Singapore Army on Facebook
They will investigate the recent incident during NDP 2022, in addition to parachute jumps for previous parades and previews.
Speaking at a National Day event in Toa Payoh Central, Dr Ng stated that SAF has looked into a significant amount of their own data and that of the National Environment Agency. This includes wind speeds during the day itself and the engineering involved.
SAF has also come up with the interim assessment that mitigation measures need to be put in place, which they are currently executing.
“Obviously, we take these risks very seriously,” Dr Ng said, adding:
We know that the Red Lions are a favourite for NDP spectators, and we want to do it safely.
According to The Straits Times, Dr Ng said one of these measures would be a trigger to declare the parachute jump unsafe if conditions were not feasible for that particular day.
Under SAF’s current procedures, a cloudy outlook would cause a cancellation of a jump if it affected the visibility of the landing site for parachutists. In addition to this, Dr Ng mentioned a need to add in conditions at the performance site.
The interim report also suggested the need to provide parachutists with a different descent path, affording them more reaction time.
Speaking on this aspect of the assessment, he stated:
These are technicalities which the experts must look into, and then they must validate it and they must practise it so we should leave it to the experts to do this.
Last Tuesday (9 Aug), 10 parachutists from the Red Lions team participated in the jump during NDP.
However, Third Warrant Officer (3WO) Jeffrey Heng had a rough landing, and medics stretchered him off the area.
Dr Ng later confirmed that 3WO Heng suffered some injuries but would not require surgery. He is also expected to make a full recovery.
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Featured image adapted from Ng Eng Hen on Facebook and NDPeeps on YouTube.
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