Skydive Auckland Limited fined $9000 over Muriwai skydiving death of Sarah-Jane Bayram

An Auckland skydiving company has been fined $9000 after the death of a British skydiver blown more than 1km out to sea after a catastrophic mid-air collision.

Sarah-Jane Bayram died on March 10, 2022, when a nine-person “speed star” formation jump over Muriwai Beach, northwest of Auckland, went horribly wrong.

Bayram, 43, had expressed concern about the wind conditions shortly before boarding the Skydive Auckland flight at Parakai. Two other skydivers declined to jump, also citing the easterly breeze.

A year after the accident, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) filed two charges against Skydive Auckland Ltd, and two against the company’s director, Tony Green.

The charges were laid under the Health and Safety at Work Act, and Civil Aviation Act, with the most serious carrying a maximum fine of $1.5 million for a company or $300,000 for an individual.

The plea deal in which the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) dropped three charges against Skydive Auckland and its director in connection with the tragedy involved the firm paying $100,000 to the victim’s grieving family.

An agreed summary of facts, earlier obtained by the Herald, said the company accepted it put Bayram in unnecessary danger by failing to have an emergency water rescue craft with trained staff on standby or having an arrangement with rescue services.

Green earlier told the Herald that before he and Skydive Auckland were due to appear in court and defend all the charges against them, the CAA offered the plea deal, which led to the charges against him being withdrawn.

He said the Health and Safety at Work Act charges against Skydive Auckland were also withdrawn, leaving one Civil Aviation Act charge against the company.

This week in North Shore District Court, the skydiver’s father Andrew Bayram said in a victim impact statement, read by prosecutor Bayley Kalach, that his daughter had been encouraged to “seek and grasp” opportunities as they came.

He said during her life she had travelled “wherever possible” and had enjoyed her time living and working in New Zealand.

She was “greatly missed” by her family.

While her death was tragic, her father said she “died doing the one thing she enjoyed, skydiving”.

Mr Bayram also joined the sentencing via audio-video link from the UK.

Prosecutor Ben Finn said the sentence start point should be a fine of $20,000, one-fifth of the maximum penalty of $100,000.

He said the landing was “right next to” a significant body of water, the Tasman Sea, which was an “obvious hazard”.

“A known risk of serious consequences was not properly mitigated by [the company].”

However, he also accepted that taking extra measures might not have saved the woman’s life.

Phinn submitted that Skydive Auckland should get a 15% discount for pleading guilty.

He and defence counsel Shaun Metcalfe agreed that a 35% discount was appropriate for factors including remorse, previous good corporate character and co-operation.

The defence submissions diverged from the prosecution on both the starting point and the level of discount for the guilty plea.

Metcalfe said the appropriate starting point was $10,000 and that the company should receive a 25% discount for the plea.

There had been “open discussion” on both sides regarding the plea, which saved the court and prosecution “considerable expense”.

Judge Anna Fitzgibbon said the gravity of the offending was low to moderate and set the sentence start point as $20,000.

She told the court a 20% discount for the guilty plea was appropriate and granted the additional 35% discount sought by both sides.

Judge Fitzgibbon reached an end sentence of a $9000 fine.

Collision knocked Bayram unconscious

According to the summary of facts, during the descent, the final jumper collided with Bayram’s left side at about 11,000ft, about 15 seconds after he exited the plane.

“The collision knocked Ms Bayram unconscious.”

About 30 seconds later – still in freefall – a fellow jumper managed to deploy Bayram’s parachute. The rest of the group landed on Muriwai Beach three to four minutes later.

Unable to control her descent, Bayram drifted out to sea in the prevailing offshore breeze before landing in the ocean about 2km from the waterline.

A pathologist was unable to confirm whether Bayram’s death happened during the mid-air collision, or if she perished in combination with landing in the ocean.

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