Narrative:

Approaching to land monmouth executive; once cleared for the visual we switched to CTAF and made a position report five miles west. A parachute jump plane immediately made an announcement 'jumpers away over belmar one minute'. When we reported downwind for runway 32; jump plane announced 'jumpers away over belmar 11;500''. I considered departing the pattern to hold; and expressed the idea to the pilot in the right seat. He expressed the opinion that we had plenty of time since they were so high and would deploy their parachutes. We continued although I modified my normal pattern to make a tight approach. On less than a 1/4 mile final; copilot spotted two parachutists over the jump area on the airport at a couple hundred feet above the ground. A go around would have been more hazardous than to continue. We completed the landing and braked hard so as to not exit the runway directly next to the jump zone. The jumpers landed as we were taxiing to the FBO ramp. In my mind; this is a hazardous operation. Jumpers sometimes do not have as much control over flight path as they should; and aircraft approaching to land are vulnerable as well. A review of far 91 and 105 revealed that part 91 'right of way' does not address parachute jumpers. Far 105; while it indicates that parachute jumpers may not descend over an airport so as to create an aviation hazard; that section only applies to jumpers drifting down over top an airport - not onto an airport where the airport authority has given them permission to operate. I believe that a review of the far's pertaining to jump operations onto airports would be prudent.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Pilot landed at BLM just as parachutists were landing and was unsure who had Right of Way under FAR 91 and FAR 105.

Narrative: Approaching to land Monmouth Executive; once cleared for the visual we switched to CTAF and made a position report five miles west. A parachute jump plane immediately made an announcement 'Jumpers away over Belmar one minute'. When we reported downwind for Runway 32; jump plane announced 'jumpers away over Belmar 11;500''. I considered departing the pattern to hold; and expressed the idea to the pilot in the right seat. He expressed the opinion that we had plenty of time since they were so high and would deploy their parachutes. We continued although I modified my normal pattern to make a tight approach. On less than a 1/4 mile final; Copilot spotted two parachutists over the jump area on the airport at a couple hundred feet above the ground. A go around would have been more hazardous than to continue. We completed the landing and braked hard so as to not exit the runway directly next to the jump zone. The jumpers landed as we were taxiing to the FBO ramp. In my mind; this is a hazardous operation. Jumpers sometimes do not have as much control over flight path as they should; and aircraft approaching to land are vulnerable as well. A review of FAR 91 and 105 revealed that Part 91 'Right of Way' does not address parachute jumpers. FAR 105; while it indicates that parachute jumpers may not descend over an airport so as to create an aviation hazard; that section only applies to jumpers drifting down over top an airport - not onto an airport where the airport authority has given them permission to operate. I believe that a review of the FAR's pertaining to jump operations onto airports would be prudent.

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.