On Sunday, a professional skydiver died when he made a hard landing into a pond in Wisconsin, officials said.
The man was 36 years old from Tennessee, and practicing for the skydiving national championship which is set to begin this week in Racine County, the Racine County Sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The release stated that fellow skydivers took the man out of the pond, where he was unconscious, and died at the scene after Deputies and members of the Union Grove-Yorkville Fire & Rescue attempted life-saving measures.
The Tennesee man was doing training runs for the upcoming competition alongside several other professional skydivers.
“It appears the victim was descending at the wrong angle for the practice run, resulting in the pond landing,” the release said. “Fellow skydivers who also witnessed the event in its entirety stated his parachute was deployed and he showed no signs of distress before, during, or immediately before landing. The other professional skydivers that witnessed the event believe he misjudged his angle of decent which caused a ‘hard landing’ into the water.”
The investigation is currently ongoing and the sheriff’s office has yet to release the name of the man pending family notification.
Sunday’s fatal crash comes shortly after an almost fatal accident less than three months ago, when two women, ages 28 and 49, suffered life-threatening injuries while tandem skydiving at the same Racine County facility, Skydive Midwest. Their parachute was deployed, but they lost control about 20 or 30 feet from the ground and crashed, the sheriff’s office said.
The US Parachute Association National Championship is scheduled to begin on September 3rd at the same skydiving center where the accident of the two women occurred, it is still not clear whether the pair has recovered or not.
