Female parachutist dead after chute failed to open and landing in housing estate
The incident occurred ins Shotton Colliery, County Durham, at around 4pm today
A FEMALE parachutist has died after she plummeted to earth in a housing estate after her chute failed to open.
The incident occurred ins Shotton Colliery, County Durham, at around 4pm today.
The as yet unnamed woman was seen tangled in ropes by the side of a car looking "like a rag doll".
A Great North Air Ambulance spokesman said: "We were called just before 4 o'clock to the Peterlee area.
"We airlifted a patient to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
"The woman is in a critical condition. I cannot say anything else at this point."
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An onlooker said: "I saw the air ambulance land at about 4.10pm so it probably happened no more than 10 or 15 minutes before that.
"She’s come down because a parachute hasn’t opened properly.
"She became tangled in the ropes. A woman who saw it said she was flopping like a rag doll.
"She came down and hit the side of a car at the end of the cul-de-sac."
Ian Rosenvinger, from the Skydive Academy at Peterlee Parachute Centre, said the woman was a "regular jumper".
He added that the he canopy on the woman's parachute rotated round leading to a heavy landing.
He told : "She landed extremely hard as a result of a rotating canopy and has gone to hospital in an air ambulance.
"The rotating canopy caused her to descend faster than usual which meant she hit the ground very hard.
"The police have taken the equipment. We have passed her name to the police so it would not be appropriate to release that at this stage.
"She would have jumped from 15,000 feet."
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