11 October,2011 11:47 AM IST | | IANS
A 75-year-old student skydiver and her instructor in the US have died during a tandem jump after their main parachute failed to open
Local police and officials believe that the unnamed pair died accidentally after jumping around noon over Mesquite, just inside the Nevada border, close to Arizona, the Daily Mail reported.
The instructor tried to deploy a backup chute, but it opened only partially and didn't do enough to slow the pair before they hit the runway at Mesquite municipal airport, said Mesquite police spokesman.
In tandem jumping, the instructor guides the student through the whole jump from exit through freefall, piloting the canopy, and landing.
The elderly female student was shifted to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The 60-year-old instructor had been skydiving for 30 years and had completed more than 11,000 successful jumps.
The accident is being probed by the Federal Aviation Administration.
