Tandem Jump Turns Deadly in Mississippi

Equipment malfunction eyed in crash that killed instructor
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2013 10:56 PM CDT
Instructor Killed, Student Hurt in Tandem Jump
   (AP Photo/Skydive Warren County, Inc., Elod Otbos)

A skydiving teacher in Mississippi was killed and the student he was on a tandem jump with was critically injured after an apparent equipment malfunction. Other skydivers said there appeared to be some "entanglement with the lines" before the pair crashed into a remote swamp, the local sheriff tells the AP. The widow of instructor Jimmie Horak Jr., 56, says her husband had completed more than 8,000 jumps and was a "very, very skilled skydiver. Very safety-conscious." The FAA will inspect the parachutes to see if they were properly rigged. (More skydiving stories.)

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