South Africa: Parachutist down practising for Virginia Airshow

Virginia Airshow in Durban, South Africa

Parachutist hit plane’s tail
16 July 2010 – 16:26
By Diane Macpherson
More details have come to light about this morning’s tragedy in which a South African Air Force parachutist died while rehearsing for tomorrow’s Durban Air Show.
It’s been confirmed that the victim was Pretoria resident Warrant Officer Brian Slade – who was in his fifties.

Officials say that as he was exiting the aircraft, he struck the tail of the plane.

He plummeted to the ground, landing on the Beachwood Golf Course. Shortly after the incident, it was thought that Slade’s parachute had failed to open, but airshow spokesperson Ray de Vries says it was a terribly tragic freak accident.

“It’s very unusual, I must say I’ve never heard of that and he had 6 000 jumps to his credit – so he certainly was no rookie.”

De Vries says while the Durban Airshow will go on tomorrow, the tragedy has brought great sadness on everyone involved involved in the event.

“It certainly has, you know, this was a terrible thing to happen. The day before the air show all the aviation guys come here; they all get together – people from Dubai from the UK from the States – and they’re like long lost brothers that are greeting each other and then one of their kin meets his end this way.”

Read about it here

RIP 🙁