Ann Eveleth
A South African parachute manufacturer has threatened an irate consumer with extortion charges after the skydiver demanded his money back for faulty equipment that could have cost him his life.
The Durban-based Chute Shop told Witbank skydiver Paul Ikin it would lay a criminal charge against him if he persisted with his threats to lay attempted murder charges or criticise the shop in pamphlets, petitions or the media, unless it refunded the R2 267 he paid for a reserve parachute the company later recalled.
The Chute Shop’s attorney, Perino Pama, who wrote the counter-threat to Ikin, told the Mail &Guardian he intended to lay “attempted extortion charges” against the skydiver for “threatening to do certain things unless money is paid to him. It’s like demanding a bribe.”
Ikin wrote his threats in an angry letter to the shop — one of two parachute manufacturers in South Africa — in late November, demanding a full refund after the shop admitted a part of the reserve parachute it sold him could be faulty. The letter followed a string of equally angry phone calls in which Ikin’s refund demand was refused.
The Chute Shop discovered last May that a “slider stop” on one of its parachutes was “soft and slightly bent”. A slider stop is a metal alloy washer sewn into the fabric of a parachute to prevent a smaller piece of fabric, which guides the ropes and prevents the parachute opening at break- neck speed, from tangling with the parachute canopy.
Pama said the shop “did not consider [the faulty slider stop] a major problem as the probability of a slider stop bending on deployment is very unlikely”, but reconsidered its position in November when a skydiver using its product experienced a malfunction. The fault caused the skydiver to “cut away” or release his main parachute and rely on his reserve to land safely.
Skydivers always jump with two parachutes. If the first or “main” parachute malfunctions, they rely on a “reserve”. Skydivers normally free-fall for about 2 500m before braking their fall by releasing a parachute. If both parachutes malfunction, or do not open properly, as happened when Pretoria skydiver C Strauss died a fortnight ago, the skydiver can hit the ground with the full impact of a 3 000m fall.
Chute Shop representative Marie Dales claimed her company had “gone to great lengths to correct the problem” after it learned of the malfunction. The shop issued a circular to warn South Africa’s estimated 500 skydivers to check their equipment for faulty slider stops, and offered to replace the stops free of charge.
But Ikin and fellow skydiver Al Gardner were not satisfied. Both demonstrated to the M&G how easily the slider stops on their reserve parachutes could be bent between two fingers. Gardner found faulty stops on both his main and reserve parachute.
For Ikin, a skydiver since 1984, the announcement was the last straw in his dealings with the Chute Shop. “I ordered a harness and asked them to install their competitor’s reserve and they agreed. Then they told me they had fitted their own and now I find out the reserve is faulty. We’re willing to take the risk that something can go wrong with the main parachute, but we’re not willing to take that risk with our reserve. I don’t trust anything from [the Chute Shop] anymore and I want my money back,” he said.
Ikin referred the matter to the Gauteng Department of Consumer Affairs late last year, which said this week it was most concerned with Ikin’s claim to have received something other than what he ordered. “According to the facts Mr Ikin supplied, he does have a case to claim a refund,” said department representative Ina Opperman, who stressed that a response from the Chute Shop was still awaited.
The Chute Shop’s Dales argued that Ikin “was abusive”; should not have expected it to fit its competitor’s product; and should not have accepted the reserve if he did not want it.
“We have the highest standards and a solid safety record. We are not the only manufacturer to have recalled equipment and all our canopies come with a warning that even the best equipment can malfunction, causing injury or even death. Experienced skydivers understand that risk,” she said.
Parachuters Association of South Africa national safety and training officer Pete Mauchan said the highest parachute safety standards in the world — the American Federal Aviation Administration Technical Standard Ordinance (TSO) requirement — had long been a “de facto” requirement among South African manufacturers, who tried to meet the standard even if they could not afford the expensive US testing required for the actual TSO stamp.
Moves are also afoot, he said, to formalise parachute safety requirements through amendments to South African civil aviation legislation.