Skydiving Trainer Dies Following Plummeting Lacking Safety Gear in Nashville
The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the fatality of a parachuting trainer following he became separated from his client during a jump in Nashville, Tennessee.
Police report trainer Justin Fuller "appears to have dropped from the air without a safety chute" during the jump on Saturday.
The instructor, 35, seems to have detached from his client and a tandem rig, which links the pair during a jump and contains the parachute.
A law enforcement aircraft located Fuller's body in a wooded area hours later. Local emergency crews used several ladders to reach the middle-aged student who survived the fall after being trapped on a tree for some time with the emergency parachute.
Officials said several additional jumps, which took place near Nashville's John C Tune airport, were successfully completed before the deadly incident. The plane from which they jumped also landed safely.
The cause remains unknown how the instructor, an seasoned parachutist, became separated from the safety equipment.
A man who helped fire crews in the rescue told a media outlet the client who authorities rescued mentioned "it was his first jump, and it was going to be his final one".
Mr Fuller had recently written about his enthusiasm for teaching others how to skydive.
"Teaching people to skydive has consistently been in my view the most rewarding job at the jump site," the instructor wrote in an social media update in June.
"Watching them figure it out and begin maneuvering their selves is consistently a touching experience. Sometimes though, it can get a little hectic up there when you let someone go for their initial attempt."
That same month he posted photos of the wreckage a skydiving plane he was on saying the plane's engine had malfunctioned after departure. All 20 people onboard lived through the incident.
