Parachutist injured in heavy landing at Parakai

A parachutist has been injured during a jump northwest of Auckland today.

Emergency services raced to Parakai after the parachutist landed heavily and injured his back.

A police spokeswoman said the skydiver's chute had opened but there were problems coming into landing.

The 32-year-old skydiver was flown to hospital by rescue helicopter in a moderate condition.

Skydive Auckland operations manager Fiona McLaren said the injured man is a sports skydiver.

"He had a harder-than-usual landing and had a sore back. Out of precaution we called an ambulance."

Skydiving was continuing over the airfield this afternoon, she said.

The accident comes three days after two Queenstown skydiving instructors were seriously injured during a tandem training flight. A police spokeswoman said the pair hit the ground at "high speed" at Drift Bay, south of Jacks Point.

NZONE instructors Sasa Jojic and Sasa Ljaskevic, both originally from Serbia, remain in Dunedin Hospital today. The hospital said it did not have their permission to release a condition update.

NZONE general manager Clark Scott said today skydiving operations were running at the business today.

The Civil Aviation Authority and WorkSafe New Zealand are investigating.