In a statement, Washington County School Superintendent Jerry Boyd said the diver jumped off the David Crockett High School soccer field in the Northeast Tennessee city of Jonesboro. David Crockett faced Daniel Boone High School in the annual Muscat Bowl rivalry, CBS affiliate WVLT reported.
Boyd said the skydiver was his loving husband, father and grandfather. He said mental health professionals will be at the two schools on Monday.
“I express my deepest condolences to the families of the injured paratroopers,” Boyd said in a statement. Jump TN, a Greeneville company, said in a statement that the 55-year-old has worked with the company and has performed more than 1,500 jumps over decades of experience.
In what it described as a “hard landing outside the intended landing area”, the company said observers and witnesses did not notice anything unusual in the freefall or the parachute, saying it spread “without incident.” The company said that eyewitnesses “did not notice anything unusual in the performance of the canopy that would indicate any malfunction or malfunction.”
Video of the witness released by WJHL-TV showed a parachute jumper with the parachute deployed, rapidly descending in a circle on the ground while onlookers screamed. “The entire skydiving community is saddened by the sudden loss of an extraordinary member of their community,” the company said. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the deceased.
After the fall, the parachutist was taken to the hospital due to his injuries and a minute of silence was observed. The soccer match continued with a delayed start.
The accident marked at least his second skydiving casualty this week. State and federal officials investigate the death of a Michigan man while parachuting in New Jersey.
State police said they responded to a request for medical help around 2:30 p.m. At Alexandria Field Airport in Alexandria Township in Hunterdon County. Police said first responders found the skydiver lying in a field near the airport’s runway. Police said Jackson, 37, of Troy, Michigan, died at the scene.
