Man injured in horror landing | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

An experienced parachutist was taken to Rotorua Hospital with moderate injuries after a change in wind direction saw a landing go wrong.

A witness has described the horror landing as the parachutist looking like a "bouncing big rubber doll".

The incident happened about 4pm yesterday afternoon outside NZONE near the Rotorua International Airport. Two parachutists were involved in the incident with one being blown off course during their decent and the other parachutist, a 33-year-old man, hitting the ground hard and then bouncing.

NZONE general manager Robynne Williams told The Daily Post last night in a statement the injured man was an experienced freefall cameraman employed by NZONE.

Mr Williams said the incident was caused from a change in wind conditions as the skydive cameraman was about to land at the parachute landing area.

He received ankle injuries. Mr Williams said the company's emergency procedures were immediately instigated, the man's ankle was strapped and he was taken to hospital by St John Ambulance. He said the cameraman had completed about 500 jumps.

Bruce from Airport Motors, who didn't want his surname published, said he was talking to a customer at their yard, directly opposite NZONE, when the parachutists came down.

He said one landed hard on the ground.

"He hit the ground and then bounced back up again."

The other parachutist had been blown off course and landed in empty land behind Airport Motors.

"I saw him land first and thought 'he's a bit off course.' I straight away looked across the road to see if there were others coming down," Bruce said.

"That's when I saw the other guy hit the ground. He was like a bouncing big rubber doll."

He said the injured parachutist was crouched on the ground while the ambulance officers were attending to him. He wasn't moving much but his hands and arms were moving.

"I think the wind was a bit strong and blew them off course."

Bruce said he was sick of looking across the road now for fear of what he was going to see.

He said they had witnessed "a few" bad landings during the past couple of years.

Each time, the NZONE staff have dealt with the casualties. "We don't need to go over, there's enough of them around."

"My wife was going to do a sky dive but I don't think she's interested now," Bruce said.

The Daily Post contacted NZONE Rotorua operations manager Keith Gallaher who said he was on holiday and was unaware of the incident. Staff at the scene said they were not able to comment.

St John Ambulance spokeswoman Ngaire Jones said a 33-year-old man was treated by ambulance staff for moderate but not life-threatening injuries and was taken to Rotorua Hospital. He was in a stable condition.

A similar incident in October last year was investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The authority couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.