Skydiver killed in accident missed landing
A New Brunswick man who was killed while skydiving Saturday afternoon near Moncton overshot the landing spot, a fellow skydiver said Sunday.
The 34-year-old man was skydiving with a group of people from Sky Dive Moncton about 30 kilometres north of the city when the accident happened.
Greg McBeth, a former owner of Sky Dive Moncton and a veteran sky diver, said the victim overshot the landing spot in Notre-Dame.
"He flew too far away from the drop zone, so he picked an alternate landing area which were baseball fields. Basically, he tried landing there and for some reason or other, he just turned," McBeth said.
"Whether he got spooked by the fences or trees, nobody really knows, but he just made a really low turn to the ground and hit the ground at a very high rate of speed."
Sky Dive Moncton was continuing operations Sunday. Staff decided that all proceeds from the day's jumps would go the victim's family, an employee said.
RCMP were called to a field just off Highway 115 in Notre-Dame at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, District 5 RCMP Sgt. Jamie Melanson said Sunday.
He said it's not known if a problem with the man's parachute caused the accident.
The RCMP are continuing to investigate, and an autopsy will be conducted.
"The process is a normal process where police get involved in any sudden deaths that occur," Melanson said. "The police aspect is to eliminate any criminal involvement and we have nothing to believe that anything criminal has taken place."
The name of the man, who is from the Notre-Dame area, has not been released pending notification of his family, Melanson said.
