Skydiving plane searching over the water at Muriwai beach shortly after the incident. Video / Supplied
On Thursday a woman died after colliding with another skydiver in the air at a West Auckland beach.
A Skydive Auckland spokesperson confirmed "the parachutist did take off from Skydive Auckland".
In a statement they said the collision happened during a nine-way formation, the woman became unconscious and her parachute needed to be deployed by another skydiver.
She was a part of a group of experienced recreational sport parachutists who were taking part in a planned sunset beach jump on Muriwai Beach.
Two local surfers who saw part of the skydiving tragedy unfold raced out to sea on a jetski before the sun went down, locating the woman before it got too dark to find her.
Without their quick thinking, lifeguards may not have been able to find her in the failing light, says Muriwai beach's head lifeguard Glenn Gowthorpe, who was close behind the surfers on his own jetski.
The woman ended up in the water under a fully functioning parachute and died at the scene. The man she collided with, aged in his 20s, received moderate injuries and was taken to Auckland Hospital by helicopter.
Gowthorpe said there were numerous people watching last night when the accident happened.
Muriwai volunteer lifeguards, from left, Glenn Gowthorpe and Nigel Sorenson, who responded to the fatal skydiving accident last night. Photo / Michael Craig
"It's not that often that [skydivers] land on the beach so when they do it's quite a spectacle. It was a beautiful night, the sunset was amazing, beautiful conditions and everyone was just looking skywards watching these amazing skydivers come down - but then of course everyone noticed that one of them was off the coast."
The brightness of the sunset meant he only noticed the person descending when they were about 200m from hitting the water. He said she appeared to be spiralling. It did not appear to be a normal descent prior to hitting the water.
He immediately "self-tasked" himself and another lifeguard, Nigel Sorenson, to attempt to rescue her.
Meanwhile, a local surfer saw the accident happen from his deck, grabbed a friend, hooked his jetski up and went straight down to the beach.
Gowthorpe said it was "absolutely pivotal".
Gowthorpe and Sorenson headed out in the rough direction that they saw the woman go down.
"Fortunately the other jetski was still there - I literally saw their silhouette on the horizon and aimed for that."
The skydiving plane circles after the incident. Photo / Supplied
They had less than 20 minutes of light left in the day.
They had performed about five minutes of CPR by the time the lifeguards got there, Gowthorpe said.
"We assisted them with the patient for a while and at the same time we quickly cut away all the harness and parachute because it was full of water and really heavy."
The lifeguards then brought the woman back to the beach on the inflatable sled on the back of their jetski. Other lifeguards and the local volunteer fire brigade communicated with them throughout the rescue but they were not aware there was a second injured person until after they returned to the beach.
The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter touched down on the beach around the same time.
"It was a really amazing community response," Gowthorpe said.
"It was so quick - this person had the best response they could have hoped for to give them the best chance of surviving. Unfortunately, that wasn't how the scenario played out."
He declined to comment on the specifics of what had happened to the woman out of respect for the skydiving community as they grieved.
"Like lifeguards, they're probably a close community. When someone gets in trouble you trust and rely on each other to help you. And lifeguards, parachutists, military, police probably all operate the same way knowing that someone's got your back."
He was full of praise for the local surfers who did an "amazing job" getting straight out to sea.
"It would have been really hard for us to find the patient if they hadn't already got there in the daylight."
'He was trying his best'
A Muriwai resident told the Herald he saw the surfers perform CPR for at least 10 minutes. He guessed it was a tow-in jetski, which is normally used to tow surfers onto big waves.
"I could see one guy pumping up and down for at least 10 minutes. It's just sad - he was obviously trying his best."
It is understood the sky-diving plane was also circling over the water.
He said CPR continued when the lifeguards raced out. They were located about 800m north of Oaia Island, about 900m offshore.
"The Westpac rescue chopper then arrived and landed on Muriwai Beach."
The lifeguards brought the woman's body back to the beach.
The resident captured a photo of the incident after hearing a low-flying plane outside his house, which is on the edge of the cliff above Māori Bay.
Two surfers on jetskis raced out to the skydiver first. Photo / Supplied
Another resident said he noticed what he thought was a sky-diving plane circling out over the water.
"It was a little unusual and it was rather spectacular so I shot a video.
"It was circling round and round and dipping down near the ocean from time to time, now I know what it was doing and then a little bit later after dark two helicopters joined the search."
A man in his 20s received moderate injuries and was taken to Auckland Hospital. Photo / Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter
Westpac Rescue Helicopter pilot James Tayler said they received reports of the incident about 7.45pm from the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand.
When they arrived, one patient was already at the beach and the other was being transported back to shore on a jetski, he said.
"We went out there ready to winch somebody out of the water but by the time we'd got there, we saw that there was a jetski on its way back to the beach with the second person on the jetski so we landed on the beach to assess what we could do for both patients."
The patient on the beach was undergoing CPR by emergency services that were already in attendance.
A St John spokesperson said one ambulance, one helicopter and a rapid response unit attended the incident.
They assisted one patient in a moderate condition who was airlifted to Auckland Hospital.
WorkSafe and the Civil Aviation Authority have been notified. A CAA spokesperson said they will be assigning an investigator.
A spokesperson from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission also said they were aware of the incident.
Investigators were gathering further information to inform the chief investigator of accidents, Harald Hendel. A decision to open an inquiry would be made later today, the spokesperson said.
The matter will be referred to the coroner.
Skydive Auckland is located at Parakai, 45 minutes from the city.
They offer the country's highest tandem skydive at 20,000ft as well as 9000ft, 13,000ft and 16,000ft tandem skydives.
It is also home to the New Zealand Skydiving School – the only Government-approved Private Training Establishment.
They have more than 20 years of experience in the industry – according to the company's registrar it was incorporated in 1998.
Past skydiving accidents in New Zealand
• Last year Theo Williams died in a skydiving accident in Tauranga. The 21-year-old was an experienced sports skydiver.
• In 2019, a Skydive Auckland instructor, John (Jack) Creane, died while skydiving at Parakai. The 27-year-old Irishman was airlifted to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition and placed in an induced coma. Life support was turned off two days later.
• On January 10, 2018, a Californian tourist died while skydiving in Queenstown with NZONE. Tyler Nii, 27, landed in Lake Wakatipu and his body was never found.
• In 2020 a man in his 30s was flown to Auckland City Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition. The highly experienced sports skydiver had landed "very hard" despite their parachute opening normally.
• Two skydivers received serious injuries after crash landing at about 100km/h when a training jump went wrong near Queenstown in 2017.
• Thirteen skydivers were forced to jump out of an aircraft over Lake Taupō in 2015 after suspected engine failure.
• In 2013, a pilot escaped without injuries after his skydiving plane crashed into a line of trees around Parakai. He was carrying two skydivers who managed to jump before crash landing.
• A man in his 50s was left with life-threatening injuries after landing on his head while skydiving from Parakai in 2012. The experienced skydiver had performed thousands of jumps.
• In 2012, a crowd of almost 40,000 people at Eden Park watched – some in horror – as a skydiver crash-landed into "swirling" winds during the Warriors' halftime show.
