B737 flight crew reports close encounter with a skydiver at 10000 feet during arrival in the dallas ...

Narrative:

We were inbound to dallas descending out of 11;000 feet for 10;000 assigned. ATC had asked us to fly 300 KIAS or better for following traffic. We had been cleared direct to fingr when we heard fort worth center advising a parachute jumping aircraft we were inbound and going to under fly him. The jump aircraft acknowledged this and said he would hold the jumpers. We asked ATC if he wanted us to take a vector away as we could see the jump aircraft crossing our path from left to right and now just over 1000 feet above us. ATC gave us a 15-degree right turn and we complied. I just didn't like the way it was looking; despite the jump plane pilot saying for a second time he was going to hold the jumpers. I began another turn to the right; looking to go from 15 to 25-30 degrees right of our original path to fingr. As I was rolling out of the turn; the first officer said; 'jumper away.' I looked up at the jump aircraft and saw a single jumper out as the jump aircraft began a hard left turn away and down; circling the jumper. I turned our aircraft further to the right; probably another 10 degrees; as we watched the jumper rapidly free fall past our left wing. He was close enough that we could both see his limbs clearly as he dropped past us. My initial estimates were that we missed him by 1000-1500 feet; but after comparing body sizes and distances; I would estimate we missed the skydiver by less than 1000 feet. The jump aircraft appeared to begin a 360-degree descending turn to circle the jumper but stopped his turn after approximately 270 degrees before he turned into our path. We still received a TA advisory; but it never progressed into an RA. We were handed off to regional approach and I asked them for a phone number to discuss the incident. After arriving; I spoke to fort worth center. They had no problems with our handling of the incident and stated they were going to have a conversation with the jump aircraft pilot.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Flight Crew reports close encounter with a skydiver at 10000 feet during arrival in the Dallas area. Jump plane pilot had been advised to hold jumpers by ATC.

Narrative: We were inbound to Dallas descending out of 11;000 feet for 10;000 assigned. ATC had asked us to fly 300 KIAS or better for following traffic. We had been cleared direct to FINGR when we heard Fort Worth Center advising a parachute jumping aircraft we were inbound and going to under fly him. The jump aircraft acknowledged this and said he would hold the jumpers. We asked ATC if he wanted us to take a vector away as we could see the jump aircraft crossing our path from left to right and now just over 1000 feet above us. ATC gave us a 15-degree right turn and we complied. I just didn't like the way it was looking; despite the jump plane Pilot saying for a second time he was going to hold the jumpers. I began another turn to the right; looking to go from 15 to 25-30 degrees right of our original path to FINGR. As I was rolling out of the turn; the First Officer said; 'Jumper away.' I looked up at the jump aircraft and saw a single jumper out as the jump aircraft began a hard left turn away and down; circling the jumper. I turned our aircraft further to the right; probably another 10 degrees; as we watched the jumper rapidly free fall past our left wing. He was close enough that we could both see his limbs clearly as he dropped past us. My initial estimates were that we missed him by 1000-1500 feet; but after comparing body sizes and distances; I would estimate we missed the skydiver by less than 1000 feet. The jump aircraft appeared to begin a 360-degree descending turn to circle the jumper but stopped his turn after approximately 270 degrees before he turned into our path. We still received a TA Advisory; but it never progressed into an RA. We were handed off to Regional Approach and I asked them for a phone number to discuss the incident. After arriving; I spoke to Fort Worth Center. They had no problems with our handling of the incident and stated they were going to have a conversation with the jump aircraft Pilot.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	862141
Time
Date	200911
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZFW.ARTCC
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Small Transport
Flight Phase	Descent Cruise
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 144 Flight Crew Type 144
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 220
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Miss Distance	Horizontal 1000

B737 flight crew reports close encounter with a skydiver at 10000 feet during arrival in the dallas area. Jump plane pilot had been advised to hold jumpers by ATC.