Woman dies after a 15,000ft parachute fall

A WOMAN died in hospital last night after a 15,000ft parachute jump went horrifically wrong.

The woman, described as a “regular jumper”, is believed to have become tangled in the ropes of her parachute and smashed into a car parked in a quiet housing estate.

The incident happened in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, at around 4pm yesterday.

A Great North Air Ambulance spokesman reportedly said: “We were called just before 4 o’clock to the Peterlee area.

“We airlifted a patient to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.”

Although she was thought to be still alive when she reached hospital, the ambulance spokesman said she was in a critical condition.

One eyewitness told reporters the woman “was flopping like a rag doll” as she fell.

The woman was also said to have hit the side of the car as she landed. The scene of the accident. Ian Rosenvinger, from the Skydive Academy at Peterlee Parachute Centre, told reporters that the woman was one of their “regular jumpers”.

He said: “She landed extremely hard as a result of a rotating canopy.

“The police have taken the equipment.

“We have passed her name on to the police so it would not be appropriate for me to release that at this stage.”

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