A skydiver has been killed and another injured after theycrashed into each other in a mid-air collision.
Both of the divers' canopies collapsed as theyplummeted towards the ground during an"uncontrolled descent" in Rochelle, Illinois just before 7pm on Wednesday. Deputies from the Ogle County Sheriff's Office arrived to find a 40-year-old man in a car park with significant injuries.
A news release from the sheriff's office said the man, who is yet to be identified, was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Another skydiver was taken to hospital with minor injuries after being found at Koritz Field-Rochelle Municipal Airport.
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An initial investigation has found that the two divers collided in mid-air, causing both of their canopies to collapse. Their back up parachutes were activated, but one of the skydivers was left unable to control his descent.
Last month, a mum-of-four was tragically killed in a horror skydiving accident as her distraught partner looked on.
Footage of Belinda Taylor and instructor Adam Harrison plummeting 15,000ft to the ground will form a major part of the investigation into the tragedy. The pair were killed instantly after the tandem skydive turned disaster at an airfield in Devon in June.
Belinda’s partner Scott Armstrong bought the jump as a thank you present for his “adrenaline junkie” girlfriend. He told the Mirror how he saw the tragedy unfold and later found the 48-year-old’s body in a field at Dunkeswell Airfield.
Devastated Scott, from Totnes, Devon, revealed the fateful jump was captured on film. “The whole thing was videotaped,” he said.
“After I realised they were both dead I was absolutely furious and demanded to see the footage of her jump. I wanted to see what had gone wrong and knew it would be on the camera.
“I literally had the video in my hands and was going to take it from the site, but then the police turned up. I ended up spending five hours with them at the airfield and never got to see it.”
The jump was part of the skydiving programme from Skydive Buzz who carry out regular activities at the airfield. Skydive Buzz offers a video option for £140 and promises to “capture your descent from a range of different angles”.
Scott told the Mirror how he saw the tragic pair plummet to their deaths. “They were the last group to go up. I was using binoculars and saw them all jump and noticed that one chute hadn’t opened,” he said.
“I was freaking out. They disappeared from view and I jumped in my car with my lad and raced across the fields. I found Belinda and the instructor lying there, still together, both clearly dead. It was a horrific sight.”
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