GEORGE TOWN, Oct 10 — A 35-year-old Arab woman was killed in a parasailing accident when she fell about 30 feet from the air into the sea off Penang’s Batu Ferringhi beach yesterday evening.

In the 5.30pm incident, Aldakhilallah Eman Mohammeds was taking part in a parasailing activity at Batu Ferringhi on the island state’s north coast when the parasailing safety rope snapped, causing her to fall into the sea below.

It is learnt that she was supposed to pull on the left rope to descend after parasailing one round but she had failed to do so and the boat had went another round before she slipped off the safety harness and fell into the sea.

According to state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow, beach boys who saw the incident immediately jumped in to pull her out of the sea.

Efforts to resuscitate the victim failed and she was sent to the hospital at about 6.10pm where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Chow said the police had detained the boat driver and seized the boat and parasailing items for investigations.

Following the incident, the Penang Island Municipal Council had suspended all water sports activities along the popular stretch in Batu Ferringhi.

Chow, who is also the local government committee chairman, said the suspension is to allow the police and the council to investigate into the cause of the incident.

“We have a safety protocol to ensure that water sports operators abide to our water sports safety guidelines that includes ensuring their customers sign the release form and understands that they have to abide by the safety rules,” he said in a press conference today.

He added that a special committee, formed to look into jet ski accidents, will be investigating this case to ascertain who was at fault.

“We need to find out what happened before we penalise anyone for this incident as it could happen due to non-compliance to safety instructions by the customer,” he said.

The suspension of water sports activities is only temporary and is the third in these three years.

Previously, water sports activities were suspended following a jet ski incident in 2011 and a horse riding incident last year, both of which the victims survived.

Chow said the suspension is to let the operators know the importance of ensuring the safety of those taking part in these activities.

The state government introduced the safety protocol with a demerit system a few years ago where operators that have more than 50 demerits will have their water sports operations license suspended.

The state government had previously contemplated banning all water sports activities along the stretch of beaches but Chow said there was resistance as such activities were seen to profit Penang’s tourism sector.

He added that the state government’s steps to re-zone the stretch of beach for these activities and to implement a safety protocol had greatly reduced the number of water sports accidents.

“Still, we can’t guarantee that there won’t be accidents as these are high risk activities,” he said.