Lifejackets judged as

data are set to be reviewed following recommendations by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission. However, it has provided no comfort to Nii’s family.

Speaking from California, his brother Kevin said the longawaited report was inconclusive.

‘‘All I can say is that this entire process has been incredibly frustrating and unhelpful.’’

Nii, a 27-year-old tennis coach from California, was on the second day of a two-week holiday in New Zealand in 2018 when he went tandem skydiving in Queenstown. The NZONE tandem parachute crash-landed in the 300 metre-deep, cold waters of Lake Wakatipu and Nii’s body was not found.

The report details a series of failures on the day Nii jumped, including ‘‘line twists’’ in the main parachute, the reserve chute failing to deploy, and the lifejacket not inflating. It found unsuitable lifejackets have been used in parachuting in New Zealand and that the standards for lifejackets referenced in Civil Aviation Rules were not directly applicable to or suitable for skydiving operations. TAIC chief investigator of accidents Harald Hendel said the rider’s lifejacket was not recovered and the commission could not conclusively determine why it only partially inflated. Another key issue in Nii’s