BPA DEATH TOLL – CAA RESPONSIBILITY

The Civil Aviation Authority has a responsibility to make sure that when it issues a Permission to Parachute, the parachuting is carried out safely. The CAA is not competent to meet this responsibility and has therefore delegated regulatory oversight to British Parachute Association Ltd trading as British Skydiving, as the BPA itself confirms in various documents and on its website. 

In a letter to the Parachute Training Organisation Association dated 8.2.2021, BPA COO Tony Butler states: If British Skydiving did not exist, either the CAA would need to take on the role and reproduce what the Association does, at a far higher cost, or there is a danger the HSE would likely carry out the role.".  

Documentary evidence of BPA/BS hostility to the HSE and its regulations is rare but this is a prime and current example.  Here we have Tony Butler, who has run BPA Ltd trading as British Skydiving for many years as its ghost supremo after serving as the Association's National Safety Officer for years, expressing the BPA's hostility to the Health and Safety Executive in writing. 

CAA Safety Director Rob Bishton

BPA Watch wrote jointly to CAA CEO Richard Moriarty and Safety Director Rob Bishton asking for a comment on their designated parachuting regulator Mr Butler's express hostility to the Heath and Safety Executive. Rob Bishton responded: "Executives of the CAA represent the CAA position and that which reflects government policy. I assure you that you will receive a reply in due course and after due consideration, given much of what is being referred to pre-dates those of us in office at this time.". 

A long-serving former member of the BPA Council of Governors told BPA Watch; "Since the early 1990’s when the UK Government introduced legislation such as the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, the strategy of the BPA has been to avoid at all costs any form of HSE regulation or oversight.

"Although the BPA have over many years intimidated PTOs and others into not reporting accidents in accordance with RIDDOR and ordered them never to involve the HSE –– the threat being loss of their BPA ratings –– the BPA have always avoided putting anything in writing – until now. This recent letter from Butler to the PTOA clearly indicates what is happening - the BPA is conspiring to break the law.   

"There are approximately 700 people employed in skydiving, whether they are directly employed, contractors, self-employed or volunteers. All of these instructors, riggers and packers are at work and subject to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and therefore subject to HSE Regulation.  Butler was the BPA National Safety Officer in the 1990s when John Ward died and narrowly escaped a charge of corporate manslaughter.

"Butler's arrogance is astonishing. It's not only because he has gotten away with it for years. He actually believes that he is the Regulator, not the CAA or the HSE. Butler has total control over skydiving – PTOs, instructors, everything – it is a dictatorship. The BPA has managed to avoid being called to account for any of the 50 or 60 deaths on its watch during Butler's reign, which is why Butler doesn't want anything to do with the HSE!

"Any accident at work involving death or serious injury opens a company up to prosecution by the HSE if there is negligence. So Butler doesn't want anything to do with the HSE.  There is an added advantage, as the BPA do not categorise and report accidents in accordance with RIDDOR, which enables them to manipulate the figures. The BPA accident and injury rates are far higher than those being disclosed to the CAA and the outside world.".   

In and of itself, this would be very serious given the shocking death and injury toll on Butler's watch as National Safety Officer and, more recently, Chief Operating Officer, a title allowing him to receive a high salary and other perks whilst pretending not to be a director of the firm. Everyone knows that the BPA Council is a smoke and mirrors exercise, that it has no actual power and that Butler runs the BPA aka BS like a personal fiefdom along the lines of a Sepp Blatter or a Bernie Ecclestone.

Out of control: Tony Butler

The fact that the CAA has effectively made Butler the UK parachuting regulator and that successive CAA Security Directors have failed to reign Butler and his cronies in and to make the firm and its CAP 660 more Health and Safety-compliant a a scandal-in-waiting. BPA Watch has communicated with a number of individuals whose warnings to the CAA about the BPA have been ignored. Or have they?

Until recently, CAA Safety Directors were appointed by ministers of state and tended to have impressive CVs as military officers and test pilots but this changed in 2019 when CAA CEO Richard Moriarty appointed the current incumbent from within CAA ranks. In 2010, the Ministry of Defence responded to concerns about the CAA's reliability by setting up the Military Aviation Authority or MAA. 

A  currently serving member of the BPA Council of Governors, who recently contacted BPA Watch but asked to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals, expressed his exasperation and frustrations: "The BPA operates like a private members club from the 1960’s. The organisation is run by a group of doddering old fools behind closed doors, who have not moved on with the times. 

"The council have little or no say and the Chair is always Butler's puppet. I am not even sure if they are aware of current legislation. They are in charge and make the all rules and everyone must obey. The Law doesn’t apply to them or so they believe.".

He and other BPA Council members are becoming increasingly concerned that as Directors of British Parachute Association Ltd, they could be held culpable for the illegal activities and potentially corrupt behaviour of Butler and the cabal of ghost directors that have controlled the BPA for many years. 

Later on in his letter to the PTOA, Butler refers to the BPA insurance scheme, which was examined in detail by BPA Watch and is one of the main topics of the letter to BPA Ltd from the PTOA's legal counsel:  "If the current policy is changed and different sections/members are covered in different areas for different amounts, everyone is vulnerable. This could include the PTOs, instructors, riggers, packers, members carrying out student talkdown etc, anyone who may have been involved. 

"If any of the above members were operating at a PTO, that for example had obtained a policy that only covered the business in order to obtain cheaper insurance (e.g. only insured for a claim against the PTO itself from a Tandem student), a PTO could try to deflect the claim to one another person in the chain. If those in the chain were unable to obtain adequate cover, would any of them be prepared to work or volunteer at the PTO and possibly put their house or other assets on the line?". 

[Editorial note: Tony Butler is clearly admitting that people are at work––and therefore subject to HSE regulation]

A former PTO owner who served on the BPA Council for a time told BPA Watch: "The clock is now ticking for Butler and the BPA. When the proverbial hits the fan, which it will, the fall-out is not going to be good for skydiving or for anyone else implicated. The BPA are going to be assigned to the scrap heap of history and people could possibly go to jail.

"There are 60 dead bodies, some of which are genuine accidents, but others are blatant corporate manslaughter and as BPA Watch have pointed out, there is potentially a murder or two lurking in the body count. People are now talking and questioning. This is a mess; it is going to explode in everyone’s face. Eventually there is going to have to be a public enquiry or a massive cover-up.  

"The HSE is going to be severely embarrassed for being asleep on watch and having the wool pulled over their eyes by the BPA for 25 years or more. As for the CAA, they have been dragged into the cesspit that is the BPA by Butler and Co and are up to their necks in it. The BPA could not have operated outside the law for so long without the CAA aiding and abetting them.". 

BPA Watch