Washington - A well-known high-speed skydiver, also known as “swooper”, was killed after her parachute’s canopy hit another canopy midair, Florida authorities said on Thursday.
Jessica Edgeington, 33, of Villa Rica, Georgia, died on Wednesday afternoon after flying out of Skydive DeLand, said DeLand police Lt. Bruce Morehouse.
Edgeington made more than 6 000 jumps and competed in canopy piloting, also called as “swooping”.
Competitors typically jump from a plane at 5 000 feet and then must manoeuvre the parachute, sometimes with twists and turns, to skim the surface of a pond between a series of buoys.
Then they must perform either a 75-degree turn, a precision landing inside a 2-by-2-meter area, or a distance glide.
The swoopers reach speeds of up to 90 miles an hour as they descend.
It’s all designed to test the parachutist’s ability to control the chute - also as the canopy - and how accurately they can land.
The sport canopy parachutes are more rectangular and look different from a rounded-top parachute.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports that this is the second parachuting death in DeLand this year and the ninth since 2005.
A US Navy Seal from New Hampshire died in January while parachute training in DeLand.
Xinhua