Jose de Alencar Lima Junior, a skydiving instructor, fell to death in Brazil's Sao Conrado after he ran off a cliff's edge. The 49-year-old army veteran was attempting a speed fly - an air sport similar to paragliding - when he lost his balance just as the parachute was deployed, the footage of which has gone viral on social media. Lima immediately fell nearly 820 feet and landed on some rocks as a woman in the background could be heard saying in the video: "Guys, I am worried."
According to witnesses, as cited by the NY Post, Lima appeared to have tripped on a hole which contributed to the fatal fall. The police are currently investigating the case and believe that Lima's equipment may have been faulty at the time of the accident.
Meanwhile, the Clube Sao Conrado de Voo Livre (CSCLV), which controls access to the site where paragliding flights and similar activities take place in Pedra Bonita, said that Lima accessed a trail -- not the ramp, and jumped from an inappropriate location.
"The pilot did not use the ramp to take off. The spot he chose for takeoff is bad and even prohibited. The CSCLV is not responsible for the incident. With that clarification, may the pilot rest in peace," CSCLV said in a statement.
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Lima, who served as a paratrooper in the Brazilian Army's Parachute Infantry Brigade, was an experienced skydiving instructor who lived in Germany but was visiting family in Brazil. His sister-in-law said it was an accident.
"We have no idea what could have happened. But he was a professional skydiver for 20 years. He was experienced. What happened was an accident," she said, adding that she had no idea whether Lima had previously jumped from Pedra Bonita.
Last month, a Chilean woman also plunged to her death while skydiving in Boituva, Brazil when her main and reserve parachutes failed to deploy correctly. Carolina Munoz Kennedy, 40, was captured on video plummeting to the ground as she spun wildly out of control.
