The suspension of activities at the National Skydiving Center (CNP) has changed the routine of the 63,000 residents and is already impacting commerce in Boituva, in the interior of São Paulo, 115 km from the capital. The tourist complex on the banks of the Castelo Branco Highway, which brings together 15 skydiving schools and six ballooning companies, completed seven days of stoppage this Friday, 29, completely empty.
Restaurant and hotel owners report a drop of up to 40% in traffic due to the disappearance of paratroopers and tourists in the middle of the season due to the school holidays.
The interruption of parachute launches over the urban area was determined by the Justice after the death of a skydiving student, businessman Andrius Jamaico Pantaleão, 38, who fell on the roof of a house on the 19th.
It was the fourth death of paratroopers in the space of four months this year in the city, an unprecedented number in the center’s 50-year history. Two of the victims died in an accident with the plane carrying the athletes to the jump. The suspension of activities was requested on behalf of the Civil Police to the local justice.
Since last weekend, shops, restaurants, snack bars and jumping schools located at the CNP headquarters have been in full swing. Only a few employees work in the maintenance of the place, such as general service assistant João Rodrigues, 61, who used a fumigator to fight termites in the jumping area. “If left, they form little mounds that can cause accidents with skydivers,” he said.
The worker, who also keeps mowed the quadrangle used for landings, with about 60 thousand square meters, regretted the stoppage. “A lot of people depend on it here for food,” he said.
Parachutist Alexandre Ohno, 27, said that his family moved to Boituva in 2004 and he has been jumping since he was 15. “My mother is a skydiver and I grew up in this environment. This place was here long before the city grew around it. The CNP is the soul of the city,” he said.
Ohno lived in Australia for 4 years and participated in many competitions, having been Australian and Brazilian champions. “If it closes permanently, a lot of people will be helpless,” he said.
On weekends, the movement of vehicles came to congest access to the center, according to cafeteria attendant Franciele Giovana Vieira da Silva. “Since Saturday we have almost zero traffic. Even the vans serving employees have stopped circulating,” she noted.
At Meu Hotel, frequented by skydivers and tourists, receptionist Letícia Marques said that, after the last accident, reservations were canceled. “Our movement is almost 100% tourists and the number of guests has greatly reduced. As it is a large hotel, we are hoping that skydiving will work again soon.”
The city has 2,015 commercial establishments of all types and commerce in general was affected, according to the city hall. Owner of the Goiano restaurant, businessman Matheus Franciscatto Ribeiro de Carvalho, 26, calculated a drop of up to 40% in daily traffic since the weekend.
“We are having a big impact, as a good part of the clientele is paratroopers. The person comes to jump and brings the family, three or four people. We’ve been open for 13 years and we’ve never experienced a situation like this. The whole city is cheering for this to be resolved soon.”
Retired Benedito Leite de Camargo, 78, realized that something was different when he stopped seeing the balloons and parachutes adorning the city’s sky. “It’s a beautiful view, something I’ve been following since 1972, when skydiving started here. You are sorely missed.”
On the other hand, rural assistant Julio Cesar dos Santos Cotrim, 33, thinks that the closure took a while. “After the deaths of the army sergeant and the plane’s personnel, they should have closed. However, they waited for someone else to die. The person who jumps knows the risk, but what about who is down here? Also, there is the noise of the planes all day long,” he complained.
Residents ask for more security
On the 19th, retired Celso Benedito Cardoso and his wife, Rita Cardoso, were with their three grandchildren at home, 600 meters from the skydiving center, when they heard a loud bang. “We got out, saw the entrance destroyed and found the body in a pool of blood. There was nothing to do. I kept my grandchildren, who are children, inside the house so they wouldn’t see that tragic scene,” said Rita.
Celso said that the skydiving school is repairing the roof and has already rebuilt the sidewalk, which sank with the fall of the student’s body.
The couple wanted to make it clear to the report that they are not against skydiving. “What happened was a fatality. There is, yes, the noise of the planes, but we got used to it. We know that the center employs a lot of people, brings tourists to the city, and we don’t want it to close. We just think that there needs to be more security for the residents so that what happened to us doesn’t happen again”, said the retiree.
It was after this accident that Civil Police delegate Emerson Jesus Martins asked the Judiciary to suspend activities “to avoid further deaths.”
In addition to the most recent death, he is investigating the accident that took place on May 11, when a plane carrying paratroopers attempted a forced landing in a pasture area and overturned. Of the 16 occupants, ten were injured and two died – paratroopers André Luz Warwar, 53, and Wilson José Romão Junior, 38. On April 24, paratrooper and Army sergeant Bruna Ploner died after falling while trying to maneuver with a high performance parachute.
Taking into account the series of accidents, Justice accepted the delegate’s request and fixed a daily fine of R$ 50 thousand in case of non-compliance. The measure does not prevent flights over the city, but prohibits the launching of paratroopers in the urban area, which affects part of the surroundings of the CNP.
On the morning of this Wednesday, 27th, the Association of Parachutists of Boituva decided, in a meeting with operators, to file a preliminary injunction at the São Paulo Court of Justice (TJSP) asking for the revocation of the measure. According to President Marcelo Costa, until the TJ manifests itself, activities will remain suspended.
For Costa, who also presides over the skydiving center, taking into account the average of 15,000 jumps per month, the number of accidents is low. “It is considered the safest jumping area in the world, being at the level of other reference centers for skydiving in the world. We’re talking about a thousand takeoffs a month, on four planes, with an average capacity of 16 people,” he said.
According to him, the court decision did not take into account that the CNP is practically inserted in the urban area, as is the case with the centers of Resende (RJ) and Manaus (AM).
“As the parachutes open about 1,000 meters from the ground, it is often necessary to launch at a certain distance for the parachutists to maneuver towards the target. This was the first case in 50 years of a fall in residence. When that plane left the runway and advanced over buildings with almost 200 deaths in Congonhas, did anyone talk about closing the airport?”, he compared, referring to the accident with a TAM plane, which left 199 dead in 2007, in the capital of São Paulo.
Costa, who is also a skydiver with more than 15,000 jumps, an instructor and an examiner accredited in Brazil and the United States, regrets the 800 people who work directly at the CNP and are at risk of becoming unemployed. “They are instructors, parachute benders, shippers, pilots, technicians and maintenance personnel. It’s more than an industry. We have proposals from other cities to change the center, but Boituva is our home and we have strong support from the city hall,” he said.
The parachute bender Jonas da Silva Teodoro Lima, 59, is one of those affected by the stoppage of the center. “I’ve worked on all continents and, outside Brazil, I’m known as the ‘Boituva bender’. I live here, pay rent, send money to my mother who is sick and, at the moment, I am unemployed. I have my passport up to date, in case I don’t reopen the CNP, but what about other people? Skydiving is the hallmark of Boituva,” he said. In March of this year, the city was officially declared the “national capital of skydiving”.
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