Ohio Skydivers Killed When Parachute Failed to Open

According to authorities, a parachute failed to fully open during a tandem jump at a northwestern Ohio skydiving center. An instructor and student were killed in the accident.

The jump occurred about a half hour before sunset, and police were called to the scene about 7:30pm. Witnesses say that they saw instructor Daniel Mathie and student Sierra Thomas spiral to the ground Saturday evening, landing in a field near the Cleveland Parachute Center. Mathie, 30, of Boardman, and Thomas, 22, of Brunswick, were both pronounced dead at the scene. They were one of two tandem teams that jumped from an aircraft at around 8,000 feet.

Mathie was a veteran skydiver and skydiving instructor with more than 4,000 jumps under his belt. Thomas was making her very first jump. Mike Gates, 52, president of the Cleveland Parachute Center Inc. in Parkman, Ohio called it a "freak accident", and said: "It was definitely something that the guy couldn’t manage. It was something out of the ordinary,” said Mike Gates, president of the Cleveland Parachute Center Inc. in Parkman.

Gates added, "The cause of the accident is undetermined. Whatever it was, it incapacitated him,” and prevented him from releasing a backup parachute, he said.

Portage County Sheriff David Doak said that the parachute cords may have been tangled, which would then cause the main canopy to only partially open. He said:

"We’re not sure, but we think it may have something to do with the cord lines on the chute, and it put them into a spiral, and that intensified, and they kept spiraling all the way to the ground. Centrifugal force may have played some part in it.The accident is still under investigation."

In April 2006, Bob Magnuson, assistant Canfield police chief, died in a skydiving accident at the same facility.