16 countries to join parachuting meet

16 countries to join parachuting meet

JAKARTA (JP): As many as 16 countries have assured their
participation in the Sixth World Parachuting Championships at
Lido Lake, Bogor, West Java, in prelude to the Indonesian Air
Show.

The United States, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia,
France, Germany, China, Switzerland, Italy and host Indonesia are
among the participants of the 10-day championships scheduled for
June 14 to June 24.

The Indonesia Air Show will take place from June 22 to July 10
at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Vice Marshall Purnomo Sidhi, committee chairman of the
championships said that the number of participants could swell
because South Korea, Japan and other ASEAN countries have
expressed their interest and are expected to register their
teams.

"If those countries participate in the championships, then it
will be the biggest parachuting event," said the executive
chairman of the Indonesian Aero Sport Federation.

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the world
aerosport controlling body, elected Indonesia the host of the
world canopy relative work championships, saying that the country
successfully held a world parachuting event in Senayan in 1991.
Indonesia was also the host of an international parachuting meet
in Bali in 1989.

The world canopy relative work competition, which features a
team of four men and eight sky divers, is held every even year,
while the accuracy and relative work competitions are staged
together every odd year.

The championships, which features four-way rotation, four-way
sequential and eight-way formation events, will use a Pilatus
plane provided by the Indonesia Air Force.

Indonesia has groomed 18 parachutists from the special forces
of the Army and Air Force, as well as from the non-military Aves
Club of Bandung. They will be reduced to 14 following a series of
rigorous training stints. (05)