Fatal skydive jump 'extremely unusual'

Sydney Skydivers say the fatal jump where two men plunged to their deaths was an extremely rare event as investigations continue into what went wrong.

The instructor killed in a tandem skydiving lesson alongside his student was extremely experienced, having made more than 10,000 jumps in his 30-year career.

Investigators are still trying to find out what went wrong in the jump that has been described as "not especially challenging".

"This is the first fatality involving a first orientation tandem skydive the company has had in over 40 years of operation and is an extremely rare incident," the Sydney Skydivers centre said on its Facebook page on Sunday.

The instructor, aged in his 60s, and his student, 29-year-old Singaporean national Mario Low Ke Wei, died during a tandem skydiving lesson at Wilton on Saturday afternoon.

It is understood the pair took off from the nearby Sydney Skydivers centre, which was also their intended landing zone, but crashed onto a private property about a kilometre away.

"The particular skydive the two men were undertaking was not especially challenging for a highly experienced instructor, who had done nearly 10,000 skydives and had nearly 30 years experience in the sport," Sydney Skydivers said.

A spokesman said more information would be released once police and safety officers from the Australian Parachute Federation finished their investigations.

All skydives were cancelled on Sunday out of respect for the two men.

"Our sympathies go out to the families and friends of both men as well as those in our skydiving community," the Sydney Skydivers post said.

"We are doing our best to ensure any support is provided to our staff, skydivers and those involved at the scene itself."

The Australian Parachute Federation is also helping with the investigation.

"We're looking into all possibilities, whether it's equipment failure or perhaps human error," spokesman Brad Turner told the Seven Network on Sunday.

Colombian tourist Catalina Granados jumped minutes before the fatal accident happened.

She was with her boyfriend, who booked the skydive as a gift for the couple to experience together.

"I couldn't believe (it)," she told AAP on Sunday.

"We were waiting (for) hours and nobody told us what happened."

Another skydiver, Dustin Leonard, told News Corp Australia he was on his way to sign up for a second jump scheduled for Saturday afternoon when he was told some skydivers had landed far away from the scheduled area.

"I don't think anyone knew something bad had happened," he said.

"I think it's just tragic. It's just a fluke accident."


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Source: AAP



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