A person was killed whereas skydiving in central Florida on Monday, in an obvious accident brought on by a malfunctioning parachute, authorities say.
The skydiver, whose id has not but been launched as officers work to inform his relations, was discovered lifeless at DeLand Municipal Airport about half-hour west of Daytona Seashore, in accordance to the DeLand Police Division. After receiving 911 calls reporting a skydiving incident, officers responded to the scene round 11:45 a.m., police mentioned, and the person was declared lifeless once they arrived.
The police division shared a picture taken close to the airport tarmac on Twitter simply earlier than 12:30 p.m. native time on Monday afternoon. Within the corresponding tweet, authorities confirmed the person had died whereas skydiving attributable to parachute challenge and "laborious touchdown."
"DeLand PD is at present on scene on the DeLand Airport," the division wrote within the tweet. "A male skydiver is deceased following a parachute malfunction and laborious touchdown."
An investigation is underway to find out what prompted the accident, in keeping with DeLand police. The Volusia County Medical Examiner's Workplace will carry out an post-mortem to determine the skydiver's reason for loss of life.
Deadly skydiving accidents are comparatively uncommon within the U.S. Knowledge collected by the U.S. Parachute Affiliation exhibits there have been 10 lethal accidents in 2021, which the group mentioned was the bottom annual tally ever recorded and amounted to a price of 0.28 fatalities per 100,000 jumps. The group mentioned dozens of skydivers died yearly all through the 70s, 80s and 90s earlier than a sluggish decline in deaths after 2000.
"Higher expertise, enhancements to tools and developments in skydiver-training packages have made the game safer than ever earlier than," the affiliation mentioned.