Official: No sign of why chute did not deploy in skydiving fatality

Police are investigating the death of a man at Skydive City in Zephyrhills.

According to the Skydive City’s president, David “T.K.” Hayes, a group of 10 experienced skydivers went up Monday afternoon for a fun skydive more than 13,000 feet in the air.

Hayes said no one in the group noticed that one of their number was missing until they had all landed and gone back inside the facility to talk about the dive.

Hayes also said he’s watched the video from Monday’s jump and saw no indication that anything was wrong.

“I kind of liken it to, you know, you drive your car down the road and you spill a coffee in your car, and you’re down cleaning up the coffee and you go off the road,” Hayes said. “It’s often a distraction or a series of distractions. He may have had a distraction that led to another problem to another.”

“It could’ve been as simple as his chest strap flapping in his face and he’s trying to deal with the chest strap and lose track of altitude,” Hayes said.

Hayes went on to say that they’ve inspected the diver’s gear and found no indication of why it the chute would not deploy. The FAA will also inspect the equipment as part of their investigation.

This story was originally published November 13, 2017 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Official: No sign of why chute did not deploy in skydiving fatality."