A daredevil father-of-two has died after trying out his new parachute for the first time.
Simone Bachiega, 51, had more than 600 parachute jumps to her credit and was considered an expert.
But tragedy struck when he made the giant jump from 13,000 feet on Wednesday morning at this Polis airfield in Sardinia, Italy.
Only 130 feet off the ground, Bachiega reportedly made a sudden turn in an attempt to correct its landing.
But he lost control and fell and died.
Born in Cremona, Italy, Bachiega was visiting a tourist attraction with two friends to make the jump.
‘true legend’
The 49-year-old skydiver who died during a jump is pictured paying tribute to his parents
diving tragedy
Skydiving instructor falls to death without parachute after horror accident
According to reports, he was eager to test his new Crossfire 109 high-performance skydiving canopy, which he had brought just a few weeks ago.
Bachiega’s friends could do nothing but watch in horror as he suddenly froze to death.
Emergency services arrived at the scene, but all efforts to save him were unsuccessful.
Valentino, a field instructor who witnessed the incident, said the fall was “terrible”.
“The ambulance arrived within minutes and they started CPR immediately.
“Unfortunately, nothing more could be done,” he said.
Police seized Bachiega’s equipment to investigate the possibility of a technical fault.
Simon ran his own home maintenance company and was fond of skydiving and boxing.
He left behind a son and a daughter.
This comes just a few weeks after a world famous skydiver died after falling from a helicopter after his parachute failed to open.
French freefall champion Pierre Volnik, 37, died on February 9 when a high-altitude jump on Mont Blanc went catastrophically wrong.
Volnik is said to have jumped from a helicopter over the Alpine mountain range before disaster struck in mid-air.
But his parachute failed to deploy at a critical moment, causing his fatal fall, according to reports.
The athlete fell to the ground at high speed in the Bossons area, where emergency teams arrived at the scene but were unable to save him.
His body was later recovered and taken away by helicopter.
