Attempted To Assist Another Jumper, Both Fatally Injured

A skydiving instructor is being called a hero for his attempts to help another jumper get his chute open during a jump a week ago Saturday in the Zephyrhills area near Tampa in Florida. Unfortunately both jumpers were fatally injured when they impacted the ground.

Both jumpers were from Iceland, and had jumped separately. They had completed two previous jumps that day with 20 other people. When they did not return from the third jump, a massive search was launched. The bodies were found after about three hours.

Video retrieved from a camera on Orvar Anarson's helmet showed him attempting to assist Admrimar Pordarson pull the cord on his main parachute. Pasco County Detective William Lindsey said it was not clear why Pordarson did not pull the cord himself.

Skydive City owner T.K. Hayes told the Associated Press that it could be that the men lost altitude awareness as they worked to deploy Pordarson's chute. He said that both had backup systems designed to automatically deploy, but that they did not have time to completely inflate before the pair hit the ground.

Anarson and Pordarson were part of a group from Iceland that travels to Florida each spring to go skydiving.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Florida state law prevents the video from being released.

FMI: http://pascosheriff.com/webapps/index.pgm