3 dead in skydiving accident in Australia
Two men and a woman have died in a horror skydiving accident at an Australian resort popular with backpackers.
Police and paramedics were called to Mission Beach, Queensland at today - where two men in their thirties and a woman in her fifties were found dead.
It is believed a solo skydiver collided with two tandem skydivers in mid-air – meaning their parachutes did not open correctly.
There are unconfirmed reports the dead skydivers were discovered in a resident’s garden.
Witnesses told they watched one skydiver’s chute become tangled up as they fell from the sky.
One eyewitness said: “You could see one chute was tangled and it wasn’t opening.
“I was just watching him in free fall until he went behind the trees, and that was the last I saw.
“I don’t understand how three people could have died, unless someone was trying to catch them.
“I didn’t see anyone near them, but they were at a fairly high altitude so maybe a collision happened further up.”
Two men in their thirties and a woman in her forties were pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesman for Queensland Ambulance Service said: “Paramedics attended a skydiving accident on Alexander Drive in Mission Beach at 3.30pm today.
“They assessed three patients for critical injuries. The patients included two males in their thirties, and a female in her forties, but none were transported to hospital.”
Mission Beach is located halfway between Cairns and Townsville in Northern Queensland and is a popular destination for backpackers travelling down Australia’s East Coast.
There are believed to be two companies offering skydiving activities in Mission Beach, which is a 14km stretch of sand with four villages based along it.