Skydiver's 'milestone' jump tragedy

Posted Thursday, October 18, 2001

A Royal Navy skydiver died on his 500th jump in front of hundreds of spectators. The jump should have been an important milestone for Lieutenant David Paton. An inquest was told on Thursday that Lieutenant Paton was part of the Raiders Parachute Display Team when he landed heavily during a display in Portsmouth.

The accident happened at HMS Excellent on 25 July this year.

Tony Butler, a parachuting expert, told the inquest Lieutenant Paton could have been trying to perform a "spectacular swooping landing", but had not timed it correctly.

He added: "Mr Paton might have thought he was going to hit a building and turned, but did not have sufficient height to land safely."
Dave Paton
Lieutenant Paton had jumped with five other members from a Sea King helicopter at 7,000 feet in perfect conditions.

Everything had gone according to plan, with the Raiders linking up and then separating to land, the inquest in Portsmouth heard.

However, as they landed in front of families at the show, the leader of the display Lieutenant Commander Phil Gibbs, who was first to land, looked back to see Lieutenant Paton.

He told the South East Hampshire Coroners' Court: "I saw a parachutist making a very hard diving turn to the left and he ploughed into the ground at the edge of the arena.

"I probably saw the last two seconds. It was all over very quickly. I knew that something was wrong and that someone was injured over there."

Lieutenant Paton, who had just completed his second year of an engineering degree at Southampton University, was taken to hospital with multiple injuries, but died later.

Mr Butler, a technical officer with the British Parachute Association, said it was not possible to say exactly why Lieutenant Paton had hit the ground so hard, as his parachute was not faulty.

Deputy coroner Peter Latham recorded a verdict of accidental death.

~ BBC