A 20-year-old Singaporean man and his instructor died in a tandem skydiving accident in Australia after they crashed onto a driveway on a property in Wilton, a town about 85km south-west of Sydney on Saturday. According to Australian media, the man had been skydiving with the company named Sydney Skydivers.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that Sydney Skydivers' dropzone base is located on Picton Road. However, the men, who were believed to have died on impact, were found in a driveway of a home a few hundred metres away at Wilton Road.
The authorities believe that the Singaporean, who was there with an Australian work visa, died due to the impact, as did the instructor.
On Sunday, a spokesman from Singapore's foreign affairs ministry said that the High Commission in Canberra is "in touch" with the Singaporean's family. "We are deeply saddened by this tragic accident. The Singapore High Commission in Canberra is in touch with the Singaporean's family to render consular assistance," the spokesman told Channel NewsAsia.
Phil Onis, the owner of Sydney Skydivers said that the instructor was in his 60s and was "an experienced skydiver". "We are keen to get in there and find out what happened. This has never happened before," he told the Sunday Telegraph.
The co-owner of the property, where the skydivers were found, told the Telegraph that the bodies landed in the driveway. He also added that his seven-year-old daughter was "traumatised" after seeing the deadly sight.
According to reports, the Sydney Skydivers has reportedly been involved in at least four deaths since 2001.The police are investigating the cause of the horrific tragedy.
Brad Turner, the chief executive of the Australian Parachute Federation, said that its investigators were assisting the police. "The main focus will be on the equipment, as long as it's not too badly disturbed... We should be able to establish exactly what happened with the equipment," he told ABC News. "Whether it was equipment failure or human failure is something that will have to be established over time."
