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Three killed in skydiving accident at Mission Beach, Queensland Three killed in skydiving accident at Mission Beach, Queensland
(35 minutes later)
Three people are reported to have died after emergency services were called to a skydiving accident in Queensland. Three skydivers have died in North Queensland in what police said might have been the result of a mid-air mishap.
Ambulances were sent to Mission Beach south of Cairns at about 3.30pm on Friday following reports a woman and two men – one in his 30s – had been critically injured. Two men in their 30s and a woman in her 50s were found dead at at Mission Beach – several kilometres from the usual beach landing point – just after 3pm on Friday.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates. Queensland police said the accident might have been caused by parachute failures when the skydivers collided after jumping from the plane.
Police in a statement said “initial investigations indicate that a solo skydiver may have collided with tandem skydivers in mid-air with their parachutes failing to deploy correctly”.
They said investigators and other agencies remained at the scene.
Wayne Kimberley, a Cassowary shire councillor who has represented the Mission Beach area for more than a decade, said it was a “terrible accident and obviously a tragedy for the community, and the [local tourism] industry”.
“Obviously from council’s perspective, we’ll be offering as much support as we can, to try and find out what actually happened,” he said. “We value the tourism industry and this is a terrible blow to that industry – particularly at Mission Beach, where we rely so heavily on tourism.”
He said skydiving was a drawcard for adventure-minded tourists in the area, along with whitewater rafting trips on the Tully river.
Kimberley said he knew little of the details, including on the initial discovery of the victims. But he said skydivers usually landed on Mission Beach in front of the Castaways resort, which is about three kilometres south of the less populated area near Alexander Drive where the victims were found.