Question about incidents

[skyturtle 0]

In a lot of news reports concerning incidents you often hear how the local LE are examining the gear etc.

Do they have a rigger along for the ride who explains things to them and essentially is the person doing the investigation or do they really just poke it around trying to figure it out?

A rigger is often brought in later but initially (and i might be wrong here in my impression of such reports, or as is quite often the case they could be innacurate) the LE seem to get ahold of it first.

Whats the procedure for this kind of circumstance or does it vary with where you are?

[darkwing 4]

Historically it has often very difficult or impossible to protect the evidence or have qualified people inspect it. There are lots of cases where crucial information has been lost because the police took it, and refused to take advice on handling.

I suspect these days things are often better, but there are still problems. Perhaps the most likely scenario is at a smaller, isolated dz which hasn't had a fatality before.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[obelixtim 100]

Edit: I'm talking about NZ here.

Normally, at the scene of an incident, the gear is first examined in situ by an investigator before anything is touched (if it is fatal). This can only be by a rated parachute expert.

It is always treated as a crime scene until proven otherwise.

In NZ every instructor rating holder, and S&TA is trained in accident investigation. On every DZ is a checklist to be followed, and this is usually handed to the first cop on the scene so he can see the procedures to be followed.

At this point the investigation is carried out under CAA regulations, which have priority over local LE. But LE, by law must be present in a supervisory role before anything can be touched.

The local investigator conducts an initial scene examination and gear inspection,( visual only) and video and photographic evidence is taken.

Once that is done, the investigator can advise the cops that the body can be removed. At that point, the gear (which still has still not been touched) is preserved in situ, under LE supervision until an independant parachute investigator arrives (cannot be a local) and takes over the investigation...it becomes his case.

The local investigator then becomes an assistant in effect, and it is his task to collect eyewitness accounts and locate relevant records to be made available to the Chief Investigator (paperwork, logs, names addresses etc) which he hands over to the CI

The CI will then conduct his own examination of the equipment and collect physical evidence...

When he has done his on scene examination, the equipment is then handed over to police custody for safekeeping and is available to the CI for further examination at a later time, when components can be examined in more detail. (AAD's and the like)


Any cops who race in and start messing with equipment (unless it is immediately necessary to prevent further danger to people) is liable to heavy sanction for interfereing with evidence, They could easily destroy evidence inadvertantly which could lead to similar accidents in the future.

CAA law always takes precedence over anything the police come up with, and that is the reason the DZ carries a document which clearly shows this authority and outlines the procedures, which is handed to the cops at the scene....

The cops are basically only there in a supervisory and custodians role (You can require them to place a guard at a scene for however long it takes to get a CI on site, which could be up to a day)

Its a pretty good system which prevents any attempts to "cover up" evidence, which is actually quite easy to do, considering that the cops and CAA don't have any expertise in parachuting.

Not sure how it works in other countries, but I believe LE have a lot more influence over what happens, which can be a very bad thing....

I've been called to act as a CI by the police on 3 or 4 occasions....and have had to at times, order the cops to desist from their approach to the situation....I had one beligerent one proclaim loudly that he wanted to arrest the S&TA on the spot, on a manslaughter charge, before we had even looked at anything...

He soon calmed down when I informed him in very clear terms of the consequences to himself of going off half cocked....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[obelixtim 100]

To add: I'd be very interested to learn how this approach to investigations compares to other countries...

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....