A Houston Skydiver Falls to Death After a Horrific Malfunction

Is skydiving on your ultimate bucket list? If so, you're not alone. Many people fantasize about jumping from thousands of feet in the air. Personally, I'm not one of those people, but hey, you do you.

EXHILARATING OR A NIGHTMARE?

Skydiving can be an exhilarating experience for those who go through with it. For the majority, it is a blast of adrenaline, anxiety, and excitement all combined into one massive emotion; for others, it's a living nightmare.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO

A Skydive Houston male instructor along with a skydiving student was gearing up Saturday, February to perform a tandem jump. A tandem jump is a skydiving experience where two people jump out of an airplane together, strapped to one another; so it's perfect for students who are not ready for a solo jump entire descent.

STRAPPED TOGETHER AND SKYDIVING

Around noontime, Saturday the duo leaped from their plane towards a golf course in a residential area nearby the Skydive Houston location. While the two were strapped together the instructor went to prepare to open the parachute as they began to descend from the sky; that's when everything turned. Art Arias was nearby and witness the entire ordeal, “He let off his primary and then the secondary shoot like opened halfway up so he didn’t fall like a straight fall he was like 50 percent shoot, like a corkscrew."

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 SHERIFF DEPARTMENT ON THE SCENE

One of the most chilling and worst-case situations played out in that jump. Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry was on the scene after the jump and described the jumpers and their parachute mentioning they "just kind of swirled down."

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE FALL

When the instructor and student landed on the ground they were approached by the nearby witness. The student was conscious however, the instructor was unresponsive. 

“She was like, ‘Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop. Get him off of me. Make it stop.’ And I was like ‘You’re ok, you’re ok’ and I’m telling the other dude, ‘Hey wake up, wake up’ and he was out,” Arias said.

THE AFTERMATH AND INJURIES

Sheriff Guidry stated the male instructor and woman were both flown by Life Flight helicopter to Memorial Hermann in the Medical Center, where the instructor succumbed to his injuries. The female has critical injuries but they are not life-threatening.

A SPECIAL MESSAGE

"Skydive Houston, along with the greater skydiving community at large, is deeply saddened by the loss of our tandem instructor and friend," Skydive Houston said in a statement to USA TODAY. "Our sincerest condolences are extended to his friends and family. We continue to pray for a full recovery for the injured tandem student."