Skydiving instructor dies as family watch

A skydiving instructor plunged to his death today in Australia as his wife and child looked on.

The 40-year-old’s chute opened, but he spun into a tight turn while landing and hit the ground hard.

“He was doing what he loved best. The parachute opening was normal, but he landed very hard while the parachute was turning,” said Graeme Windsor of the Australian Parachuting Federation.

Paramedics and others at the scene tried unsuccessfully to revive him.

Windsor said the man, from Victoria’s state capital Melbourne, was a qualified skydiver who had made 1,300 jumps in the past.

He was filming other skydivers making a tandem jump during his fatal plunge.

Federation safety officer Paul Murphy said the man’s wife and one of his two children saw the tragedy.

“It is just traumatic that the family was there to see the accident happen,” he said.

It was the second diving death in less than two years at the popular parachuting location near Nagambie, about 90 miles north of Melbourne.

In April, 2001, a skydiver died after his chute became entangled with a plane, ripping off the plane’s tail.

The pilot kept his damaged aircraft in the air long enough to allow 10 others to jump to safety, and then leapt out himself seconds before it crashed.