Comparison of parachute landing injury incidence between standard and low porosity parachutes.

Deployment of personnel by parachute is a common practice in many types of operations, both in and out of the military. Such operations are not without hazard and are associated with injuries which commonly occur during the landing phase of deployment. Environmental factors (i.e., wind and terrain) together with parachute sink rate are thought to influence the incidence of landing injuries. This study compared the incidence of overall landing injury and landing injury by parachute type in 8,706 jumps over 3 years between 1988 and 1990 between a standard porosity round canopy and a lower sink rate low porosity round canopy. In all cases the low porosity parachute group experienced significantly (p = 0.007) fewer overall injuries and fewer injuries of every type (reductions of 77% in 1988, 81% in 1989, and 94% in 1990). Reduction of sink rate by even small amounts correlates with significant (p less than 0.001) injury incidence reductions on the basis of reduced kinetic energy dissipation. Low porosity parachutes should be adopted where appropriate to reduce sink rate and hence landing injuries. Flight surgeons associated with airborne operations and who are familiar with these data can play a significant role in reducing parachute landing injuries.