73-year-old man dies in skydiving accident after parachute fails to deploy

A 73-year-old man has died in a skydiving accident after he suffered a hard landing when his parachute didn’t fully deploy during his jump, police say.

A 73-year-old man has died in a skydiving incident after he suffered a hard landing when his parachute didn’t fully deploy during his jump, police say.

The incident, which happened last Wednesday in Eloy, Arizona -- approximately 70 miles south of Phoenix -- when Terry Gardner, a Casa Grande resident, jumped from a plane at 12:04 p.m., his third jump of the day, according to a statement from the Eloy Police Department.

“Terry, accompanied by three friends and fellow skydivers, embarked on their third jump of the day from Skydive,” authorities said in their statement regarding the accident. “The group had planned a formation jump from an altitude of approximately 14,000 feet. While they were unable to complete the intended formation, it is not believed that this contributed to the accident.”

The other three skydivers all landed without any issues but, even though Gardner’s parachute deployed during the jump, officials said he encountered “unexpected complications” which ended up resulting in a “hard landing without a fully deployed parachute.”