Vic: Air safety investigators to examine scene of skydiver death

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2001
Vic: Air safety investigators to examine scene of skydiver death

MELBOURNE, April 30 AAP - Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) officers are today
investigating the death of a skydiver whose parachute caught on the tail of the plane
he'd jumped from.

The incident, which occurred about 1.15pm yesterday in central Victoria, forced 10
other skydivers and the plane's pilot to jump for their lives before the aircraft crashed.

Authorities said the dead man's parachute got tangled on the plane's tail, which then
broke off and fell to the ground with the skydiver.

Pilot Barry Dawson tried to control the aircraft until it was 500 feet from the ground,
then jumped to safety himself as the plane crashed into a paddock.

Paul Murphy from the Australian Parachute Federation described Mr Dawson's efforts
as "a very, very heroic task".

The dead man, aged 31 from Mt Waverley in eastern Melbourne, was an experienced skydiver
who had made more than 2,000 parachute jumps.

He was on his eighth jump for the day as a member of a team practising for a competition
when tragedy struck on the flight heading over the Goulburn Valley Highway near Nagambie,
police said.

Shortly after take off, at about 14,000 feet, he was the first skydiver to jump from the plane.

The aircraft was a single-engine turbo-prop Cessna 208, commonly known as a Caravan.

BASI air safety investigation deputy director Barry Sargeant said two BASI investigators
were on their way to the scene and were expected to arrive by early today.

Police said they would also investigate the incident.

AAP imc/cd/br

KEYWORD: PARACHUTE DAYLEAD

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