A Texas skydiving instructor died after suffering a spectacular accident with an apprentice after the parachute did not open and they hit the surface, remaining in critical condition since Saturday.
The information was released by Skydive Houston, a company where he worked, and through a statement issued on Sunday, they lamented the fatal death.
“Skydive Houston, together with the great skydiving community in Overall, he is deeply saddened by the loss of our tandem instructor and friend,” the company said. “Our sincerest condolences are extended to his friends and family. We continue to pray for a full recovery of the injured tandem student.”
For his part, Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry told CNN that the skydiving apprentice and her instructor, whose identities are still have not been revealed, they made a tandem jump on Saturday afternoon near the city of Waller, located northwest of Houston, when they realized that the parachute had not opened.
After impact with the surface, both were airlifted to Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston, where it was determined that the instructor remained in a more serious condition than the apprentice.
Guidry added that the cause of the accident is under investigation, while the company Skydive Houston reported that jump operations will be suspended while the local police and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ) do the pertinent investigations.
“Skydive Houston has an excellent safety record, and significant injuries associated with tandem skydiving are extremely rare“, the company indicated while citing a statistics web portal skydiving safety, which was developed by the United States Parachute Association (USPA), Fox News noted.