Skydiving hero saved student before plunging to his death
Experienced instructor’s rescue attempt turned to tragedy as aborted chute became tangled in legs
A SKYDIVING instructor fell to his death after saving a student whose parachute failed during a jump.
Carl Marsh, 46, fell 1,600ft after he went to rescue Dominic Leeds when a piece of his equipment snapped.
As Mr Marsh, a father-of-one, went to help release a reserve parachute, he became entangled in the student’s principal chute when it was jettisoned away.
An inquest heard the tragedy occurred on April 29 last year at the Black Knights Parachute Centre in Cockerham, near Lancaster, which was holding a training day for tandem skydiving.
Mr Marsh, from Knutsford, Cheshire, was an expert instructor who had performed 1,150 jumps all over the world. 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 himself had jumped 400 times, told the inquest at Preston coroner’s court: “I reached up to deploy the left-hand steering toggle but as I pulled the toggle down the left toggle came off.”
Mr Marsh performed a manoeuvre to enable him to dock with Mr Leeds’ canopy. He then instructed Mr Leeds to “cut away” his primary chute. Mr Leeds said: “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.”
Mr Marsh’s son Craig, 19, who works at the centre and was present that day, 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 first, before himself.”
Recording misadventure, James Newman, the coroner, said: “This is a hazardous sport and Carl deliberately put himself in harm’s way to help his student.
“As part of a canopy formation two parachutes were meant to perform what is known as a stack, but the other parachute suffered equipment failure.
“Carl Marsh attempted to assist, putting himself at risk and subsequently became entangled in a primary parachute that had been released leading to a catastrophic spin.
“This resulted in unconsciousness and Carl was therefore unable to recover the spin and suffered catastrophic and fatal injuries, passing away at the scene. It is a testament to his character that he stepped in to help and in doing so he put himself in danger.”
Tony Butler, chief operating officer of the British Parachute Organisation, told the hearing that over a period of time a knot in the equipment may have come loose, causing the toggle to come off. He said this would have been “easy to miss” when packing a parachute. He added: “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 certainly don’t think Dominic did anything wrong at all. As a student you are inclined to do exactly what your coach is telling you to do.”
Mr Marsh’s family said in a statement: “Carl was taken away from us so
‘It is a testament to his character that he stepped in to help and in doing so he put himself in danger’
suddenly, that this just doesn’t feel real. Carl was a much loved husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, uncle and nephew to all of us and we all loved him very much.
“It is hard to imagine how life will be without Carl. He has left a massive hole in our lives and we will never forget him.
“Carl was an inspiration to us all and his zest for life was demonstrated every day in his love for his family, his strong work ethic and his happy personality.”