Alan Tarrant will not forget 4.17pm Tuesday for as long as he lives.
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The Goulburn resident was staying with wife Suellen at Moruya North Head camping ground next to Moruya airport, and the last thing he expected was to see a tragedy unfold.
“I went out (of the caravan) to switch on the generator and, after I switched it on, I looked up and saw the skydiver coming out of the sky,” he said.
“His coloured ‘chute was opened and then his white ‘chute, and it appeared they were entangled. It looked like he was coming down at 100 miles an hour. He was moving his hands above his head trying to fix the chute. He hit the ground feet first with a loud thump.”
Ms Tarrant came out of the caravan and asked what the thump was that she had just heard.
“It was one of the most horrifying things I have ever experienced, especially when you know that someone is deceased,” Mr Tarrant said.
“I’m shocked and I wish it didn’t happen ... I’m glad we weren’t closer to it.”
Judging by what they saw and heard, the Tarrants believed the man had no chance of survival.
The Tarrants were impressed with how quickly emergency services were on the scene.
“The ambos were here in five minutes and a fellow went over in a golf cart,” he said.
A spokesman for the Batemans Bay Ambulance service said that officers from the Batemans Bay and Moruya stations happened to be in the area at the time.
“Resuscitation attempts had been made by bystanders before paramedics arrived, but the man had serious injuries, and he could not be saved,” the spokesman said.
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