| Description: On Feb. 10Th. 16 people from a load of 55 landed in the water; fifteen were rescued but, one skydiver was missing; only his parachute was found. Examination of his parachute harness, showed an open chest strap and loosened leg straps. This skydiver opened the lowest from his group, at around 3000 feet and was apparently disoriented. He first flew under his canopy towards sea, then toward land. He was completely detached and lower than his fellow skydivers who were all further up wind and higher up. A fellow skydiver saw him from a distance land down wind, not flaring his parachute and hit the water at a high rate of speed, upper body first. It is assumed that his feet made the first contact with the water, projecting his upper body forward whereby his face hit the water very hard making him unconscious. Search and rescue missions by airplane, helicopter, speedboats and local fishermen boats were conducted until dark, where search operations had to be stopped. The search and rescue missions continued until two days after the local fishermen found the body of the missing skydiver floating in the water, 8 kilometers from the sight of the accident. Whatever caused landing in the water, it was certainly a combination of many factors: winds, spotting, communication with the cockpit, too low opening, etc. |