From 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2023, a total of 527 Service personnel sustained injuries from parachuting. Of these:

1. 143 had broken bones (fractures)
2. 1 had a respiratory illness
3. 382 had other injuries

There was one fatality as a result of parachuting in 2021.

This information was drawn from a number of databases and relied on manual data extraction based on specific search terms.

The type of injury was identified from a number of different variables in the data including the free text narrative of the description of the incident. The MOD Health and Safety systems are not medical databases and do not contain clinical diagnoses. The databases are also live and therefore information is subject to change or revisions. As a result, there is a risk of inconsistency with the data, and the returns may not be exhaustive.

Any records that did not contain one of the search terms used has been categorised as ‘other’. These are reported conditions including but not limited to sprains, pain, bruising and lacerations.

From 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2023, a total of 527 Srvice personnel sustained injuries from parachuting. This has been broken down per year in Table 1 below.

To compile this information, a search was performed on Ministry of Defence (MOD) Health and Safety datasets. MOD safety systems are live databases and can be updated and have additional information recorded throughout an investigation. Records can also be removed if identified as duplicates. Therefore, figures are subject to change and revisions.

Table 1 : UK armed forces personnel injured in a parachuting incident by year

1 January 2016 to 31 December 2023