Skydiver crashes into ground
2007-10-28 15:54
Johannesburg - A 45-year-old skydiver was killed in Carletonville on Sunday when a landing manoeuvre went wrong, the Johannesburg Skydiving Club said.
Spokesperson Mark Bellingan said Eric Stephenson died of multiple trauma injuries at the club.
"The skydiver was preparing to carry out a swoop landing manoeuvre under a fully inflated parachute. An error in judgement in preparing to land the parachute resulted in a high speed impact with the ground."
Skydivers must have had more than a 1 000 skydives before embarking on this kind of landing manoeuvre.
"Swooping or canopy piloting is a discipline within the sport of parachuting in which participants execute high speed landings to measure speed, accuracy and distance," said Bellingan.
Stephenson started skydiving more than 22 years ago and had completed more than 5 300 skydives.
- SAPA