Military parachuting injuries in Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to identify the main injuries caused by military parachuting jumping techniques in Brazil. With this aim, their distribution by anatomical site and their association with aircraft type and drop zone characteristics were analysed. Data for the study were obtained by the analysis of accident reports, completed after each jumping training mission in which an injury occurred, during the period January 2005–August 2006. The overall lesion rate during the period was 1.2%, with 189 injured subjects, and the highest injury rate was detected for the foot/ankle anatomical site (32.8%). The relative injury rates according to drop zone were 1.00% (main drop zone— Afonsos) and 2.94% for the remaining zones. Regarding aircraft type, these rates were 0.91% for the C130, 2.03% for the C115 and 2.68% for the C95 airplanes. The relative risk for the drop zone categories (reference category Afonsos) was 2.94 (95% CI: [2.10; 4.04]); while for aircraft types (reference category C130) these values were 2.95 (95% CI: [2.18; 3.98]; C95 aircraft) and 2.23 (95% CI: [1.34; 3.70]; C115). The study suggests that ankle stabilisers should be put into use by military parachuters, and that a better-planned schedule should be implemented for the used drop zones.