Skydiver plummeted to his death after saving student whose parachute had failed
A SKYDIVING instructor plummeted 1,600ft to his death after saving the life of a student whose parachute failed, an inquest heard.
Carl Marsh, 46, – described by his son as “the best dad I could have had” – went to the aid of Dominic Leeds after a piece of equipment snapped during a training exercise.
He helped Mr Leeds to release his reserve parachute but got tangled up in the student’s main canopy as it was jettisoned.
Mr Marsh cut himself free but may have lost consciousness when his own parachute began spiralling down. He suffered multiple injuries as he hit the ground and died at the scene.
His son Craig, 19, was there when the tragedy happened.
Preston coroner’s court was told the tragedy happened at the Black Knights Parachute Centre near Lancaster during a training day for tandem skydiving last April.
Emergency
Car dealer Mr Marsh, from Knutsford, Cheshire, held British Parachute Associate qualifications and had performed 1,150 jumps worldwide.
He had gone up in a Cessna aircraft with Mr Leeds to teach him a manoeuvre called canopy formation, in which jumpers fly close to each other. One jumper then docks on the other’s parachute in a move known as a stack.
The pair jumped out at 8,000ft but, as Mr Leeds tried to release his parachute, a toggle broke and Mr Marsh went to help him.
Mr Leeds – who had done 400 jumps – told the inquest: “I reached up to deploy the left-hand steering toggle but as I pulled the toggle down the left toggle came off. I didn’t immediately execute my emergency procedures because I was worried that Carl was very close or behind me.
“I said to him: ‘Mate, my brake line has broken’ and I remember him replying, ‘OK buddy, don’t worry…I’ll come and dock on your canopy and we will go down together.’ ”
“We achieved the dock and went through the cloud. As we came through the cloud Carl started to steer us back towards the main landing area.
“Carl said, as an instruction, ‘Come on buddy, you need to cut away.’ I released my canopy and fell away from him. I went into freefall and then deployed my reserve.
“As I cut free, my primary parachute became wrapped around Carl’s legs. I looked back to see that Carl was spiralling with my canopy on the bottom of his legs.”
Craig Marsh told the inquest: “He was the best dad I could have had – he did everything for me.
“He was always looking out for others and always put other people before himself.”
Tony Butler, of The British Parachute Organisation, said Mr Leeds had not done anything wrong.
But he said: “I wouldn’t have expected someone to dock on to someone else’s parachute when there was something wrong with that person’s parachute, as you don’t know how it is going to react.
“I believe Carl was probably trying to be helpful, as he knew the whereas Dominic didn’t.”
He said Carl probably was not concentrating on steering while he was cutting himself free and could also have been rendered unconscious by the speed of the spiralling parachute.
Recording a verdict of misadventure, Coroner James Newman said: “This is a hazardous sport and Carl deliberately put himself in harm’s way to help his student.
“It is a testament to his character that he stepped in to help and in doing so put himself in danger.” area