Skydiver dad killed saving student when ’chute failed
Brave instructor plummeted 1,600ft
A HERO skydiving instructor fell 1,600 feet to his death saving the life of one of his students.
Carl Marsh, 46, went to the aid of Dominic Leeds after a line on his main parachute snapped.
Dad-of-one Carl helped Dominic release the reverse one but as they ditched the main parachute, the instructor’s legs became tangled up in it.
It is thought Carl blacked out as he spiralled to the ground at high speed.
He suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene in Cockerham, near Lancaster, on a training day for tandem sky diving.
Carl’s 19-year-old son, Craig, was working on the ground at the Black Knights Parachute Centre when the instructor died on April 29 last year.
Carl, from Knutsford, Cheshire, who had performed 1,150 jumps, was teaching Dominic the “canopy formation” where one jumper docks on to the other’s parachute. They jumped out at 8,000 feet but as Dominic attempted to release his parachute, a toggle broke.
He told an inquest: “I said to him, ‘Mate, my brake line has broken’. He said, ‘Don’t worry I’ll come and dock on your canopy and we will go down together’. “As we came through the cloud Carl said, ‘Come on buddy you need to cut away’.
“My primary parachute became wrapped round Carl’s legs. I looked back to see Carl was spiralling with my canopy on the bottom of his legs.”
Coroner James Newman told the hearing in Preston: “Carl deliberately put himself in harm’s way to help his student.”
Carl’s son Craig, said: “He was the best dad I could have had.” A family statement said: “His enormous heart was big enough for every one of us. He loved life to the full.”
Verdict: misadventure