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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Parachutist dies after landing in housing estate | Parachutist dies after landing in housing estate |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A parachutist has died after her chute failed to open and she crash-landed in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, police say. | |
| The 49-year-old from Hebburn, South Tyneside, had jumped before but not in the UK, Durham Police said. | The 49-year-old from Hebburn, South Tyneside, had jumped before but not in the UK, Durham Police said. |
| She was found in a cul-de-sac close to the airfield at Shotton Colliery from where her plane had taken off. | She was found in a cul-de-sac close to the airfield at Shotton Colliery from where her plane had taken off. |
| The Great North Air Ambulance Service flew the woman to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. | |
| Det Insp Dave Cuthbert said: "This is a tragic incident. The lady who has died was using her own equipment and was making her first sky-dive in this country, having previously made parachute jumps abroad. | |
| "We will be working with the HSE and the British Parachuting Association to establish why this tragedy happened." | "We will be working with the HSE and the British Parachuting Association to establish why this tragedy happened." |
| 'Not screaming' | |
| The coroner has been informed and a post-mortem examination is due to be carried out on the woman's body. | |
| It is understood residents carried out CPR on the woman before paramedics arrived at the scene, where she had landed on a car. | |
| One witness, who did not want to be named, said seeing parachutists was not unusual, but this jump - involving a group of parachutists - had made him look up. | |
| "I could hear a fluttering noise and it sounded unusual," he said. | |
| "I could see it was not the main parachute, because they're massive. It was so close to the ground." | |
| He said it did not look like the woman was moving before she hit the car and he thought she was unconscious. | |
| "She was not screaming," he said. "All I can see is her spinning like a top." | |
| He did not see the impact, but later saw the woman on the ground as people tried to help her, after she appeared to have suffered a serious head injury. |