KGUN 9NewsNational News

Actions

Police investigating deadly Florida skydive, parachute reportedly not pulled

Posted at 8:40 PM, Nov 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-14 06:57:11-05

Police detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a skydiver in Zephyrhills, Florida.

Management at Skydive City told Tampa-based WFTS, the skydiver was experienced and had a properly working parachute and reserve parachute. 

"(The skydiver) hit the ground at full speed and were killed on impact, instantly," said General Manager TK Hayes. 

Hayes said neither the main parachute or reserve were pulled. 

It was the second to last jump of the night. The skydiver broke away from a group dive, landing at the edge of the 100-acre property. 

"It's definitely a mystery," said Hayes. "We've had a preliminary investigation with the detectives out there and looked at the equipment, we can't see anything particularly wrong with it."

Hayes said the skydiver was not using an automatic activation device, which deploys the parachute at 700 feet if still in free-fall. That piece of equipment is not required for licensed skydivers. 

"It's just a sad day for the community, there's nothing we can do about that now that that's happened other than hopefully we learned something from it," he said. 

Skydive City sees about 70,000 jumps per year. According to Hayes, it has been a couple years since they've experienced a fatal jump. 

At this time, police have not released the skydiver's name, pending next of kin notification.