The owner of a parachute school located north of Toronto where a Bradford, Ont., man died Saturday night after a skydiving incident says the 39-year-old victim was an experienced jumper.
The man -- who family members have identified as Brad Vale -- had logged more than 2,000 jumps, York Regional Police say.
Adam Mabee, the president of the Parachute School of Toronto in Georgina, Ont., said that because Vale was a "highly experienced" skydiver, he did not have a spotter on the ground at the time of the incident.
He said that Vale had been attempting to perform a "swoop landing" – a type of high-speed landing – before he died.
Mabee said that Vale had successfully pulled off the stunt many times before.
A nearby resident, who witnessed the fatal plunge, said Vale had been parachuting with a group of skydivers.
"I saw a parachute just chilling…really chilling and enjoying it and then coming down so fast," Kim Greathead told CTV Toronto.
York Regional Police say witnesses told them that Vale’s parachute had deployed, however, he did not have a successful landing.
"From what the witnesses told us, his parachute was open and he was making a landing, however, he came in fast and hard," Insp. Stuart Betts said Saturday.
"It was a hard landing and the wrong way."
Betts added that Vale was likely not a student at the school.
"This individual, from all appearances, was not a student at this school. He was an experienced skydiver."
Police were called just before 6:30 p.m. at the parachute school. Vale was pronounced dead at the scene.
This is the third skydiving-related death in connection with the school since last July.
A 29-year-old woman died in May after experiencing equipment failure, and an Etobicoke man was killed last year after losing control of his parachute.
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