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)