A 45-year-old skydiver was killed in Carletonville on Sunday when a landing manoeuvre went wrong, the Johannesburg Skydiving Club said.
Spokesperson Mark Bellingan said Eric Stephenson died of multiple trauma injuries at the club.
”The skydiver was preparing to carry out a swoop landing manoeuvre under a fully inflated parachute. An error in judgement in preparing to land the parachute resulted in a high speed impact with the ground.”
Skydivers must have had more than a 1 000 skydives before embarking on this kind of landing manoeuvre.
”Swooping or canopy piloting is a discipline within the sport of parachuting in which participants execute high-speed landings to measure speed, accuracy and distance,” said Bellingan.
Stephenson started skydiving more than 22 years ago and had completed more than 5 300 skydives. — Sapa