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29
Jun 2021
Harrogate dad died skydiving in parachute with holes patched over
A Harrogate man died during a skydive after he was given a parachute with holes patched over.
An inquest yesterday heard Christopher Swales was skydiving over the Grand Canyon in America in September 2019 as a 30th wedding anniversary present from his wife, Deborah.
The couple were on holiday in Arizona where they renewed their wedding vows.
They booked Mr Swales’ skydive with a company called Paragon Skydiving.
The inquest at Northallerton heard Mr Swales was partnered with an experienced military instructor, Matthew McGonagle, for his tandem jump.
In a statement, Mr McGonagle said everything was normal on the morning of the jump. He said the winds were high at 27mph, which is two miles more than allowed in the UK for a skydive to take place. But the American Air Force expert had jumped many times in those conditions.
Mr Swales and his instructor jumped out of a Cessna aircraft, and the parachute opened. Minutes later, witnesses on the ground say the men began freefalling down at speed.
When they hit the ground, Mr Swales suffered serious injuries. Staff on the ground performed CPR on Mr Swales, but he was later certified dead. Mr McGonagle had broken his leg.
Performed over 1,500 jumps
The inquest heard Mr McGonagle, 34, had worked at the US Air Force as a jump master, and he had performed over 1500 jumps. He had an additional weekend job with Paragon Skydiving.
Mr McGonagle told American police he felt the pressure change as they approached the landing area, and he suspected the parachute had collapsed. After hitting the ground, he remembered little else other than medical staff and being taken to hospital.
The owner of Paragon Skydiving, Jason Theuma, watched the jump from the ground. He told police all the equipment was functioning correctly but maintained that Mr McGonagle must have panicked once he realised they were going to miss the landing area.
Theuma said he saw his employee attempt an "aggressive left turn, midair". He told officers that he saw the two men hit the ground "at high speed in a loud boom and a cloud of dust" 100 yards away from the landing zone.
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US police took the parachute from Paragon’s offices, as part of their investigation into Mr Swales’ death.
The American police report states that they found, ‘numerous patches sewn into the fabric’. Defects or holes in the material had been circled with a pen.
American police closed their investigation after ruling Christopher Swales’ death as accidental.
Family statement
The coroner, Jonathan Heath, said:
Seven family of Mr Swales’ family members sat silently listening. Two of them began crying as they made a statement, which said:
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