Narrative:

I was working a helicopter on the full ILS runway 5 approach into the meb airport. A small transport aircraft had been doing parajump work at 10;000 over the meb airport for most of the day. The small transport pilot had announced minutes prior that jumpers were away; and he began heading northeast bound back into the airport. As he was descending; he told me that the last jump was a haho [high altitude-high opening] and that jumpers would be in air over meb for at least 10 minutes. At this point; the helicopter was nearing a 5 mile final into meb. Luckily; the [helicopter] pilot heard this on advisory frequency and came back to my frequency. I then gave the pilot holding instructions to allow the jumpers to safely get on the ground. This was a very dangerous situation; as a) I was not told that the jumps would be haho's (the jumper pilot said it was a 'last minute thing'); and b) I have no way of knowing for sure when the jumpers are on the ground; so I can allow aircraft to continue inbound. It is paramount that jump aircraft advise the controllers when haho jumps are in effect. The pilot should also follow the jumpers to the ground to allow controllers to know when they are on the ground. Also; these jumpers did not have transponders. Fay airspace is saturated daily with jump activity; it is not unusual to have more than 6 jump aircraft in our airspace at once. Pilots and controllers must be on the same page to prevent dangerous situations from happening.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: FAY Approach Controller reports a high altitude jump created a conflict with helicopter traffic approaching MEB and holding instructions are issued.

Narrative: I was working a helicopter on the full ILS Runway 5 approach into the MEB airport. A small transport aircraft had been doing parajump work at 10;000 over the MEB airport for most of the day. The small transport pilot had announced minutes prior that jumpers were away; and he began heading northeast bound back into the airport. As he was descending; he told me that the last jump was a HAHO [High Altitude-High Opening] and that jumpers would be in air over MEB for at least 10 minutes. At this point; the helicopter was nearing a 5 mile final into MEB. Luckily; the [helicopter] pilot heard this on advisory frequency and came back to my frequency. I then gave the pilot holding instructions to allow the jumpers to safely get on the ground. This was a very dangerous situation; as a) I was not told that the jumps would be HAHO's (the jumper pilot said it was a 'last minute thing'); and b) I have no way of knowing for sure when the jumpers are on the ground; so I can allow aircraft to continue inbound. It is paramount that jump aircraft advise the controllers when HAHO jumps are in effect. The pilot should also follow the jumpers to the ground to allow controllers to know when they are on the ground. Also; these jumpers did not have transponders. FAY airspace is saturated DAILY with jump activity; it is not unusual to have more than 6 jump aircraft in our airspace at once. Pilots and controllers must be on the same page to prevent dangerous situations from happening.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.