2 Skydivers Died After Their Parachutes Snagged on Plane Steps, Leaving Them Hanging in Mid-Air, Says Attorney

An Australian court has heard new evidence about the deadly skydiving accident that killed an instructor and his tandem passenger at Goulburn Airport in New South Wales in June 2021.

Attilio Giovanni Ferrara, director of the Goulburn Flight Training Centre — the company involved in the tragedy — is now on trial after being charged by SafeWork NSW over the deaths of instructor Stephen Hoare, 37, and passenger Alex Welling, 32, according to Australia Associated Press (AAP).

The court was told that Hoare and Welling became tangled in the plane’s steps before dangling mid-air and eventually falling to their deaths, The Guardian reported.

During the 10-day trial in Sydney’s NSW district court, Darien Nagle, a lawyer for SafeWork NSW, argued that two major safety problems had been overlooked.

Nagle said a metal step added to the Cessna aircraft created a snagging hazard, something the company had already mentioned in its own documents. He also claimed the company had no “buddy check” system, a safety step used by other skydiving businesses to ensure straps or webbing weren’t caught before a jump.

“It was always known and obvious that these types of steps, along with webbing that hadn’t been buddy-checked, could lead to catastrophic results,” Nagle told the court, per AAP. “It was only a matter of time before an incident such as this should occur.” He added that the steps were removed from some Cessna planes after the accident.

GoPro footage taken by skydiver Nick Amoroso, who jumped with Hoare and Welling that day, was also shown in court. The video allegedly captured a black strap getting caught on the outside of the plane as the men tried to launch, leaving them hanging upside down, per AAP.

“I noticed Alby and Steve were stuck to the aircraft, hanging upside down,” an emotional Amoroso said. “The plane was trying to get low enough, and there was a guy on a four-wheel drive trying to reach Steve and Alby, but he couldn’t get to them.”

According to The Guardian, the victims’ families left the courtroom when the footage, which included one of the men swearing after realizing they were tangled, was played.

Ferrara and his company are facing two counts of breaching workplace safety duties. His lawyer, Maurice Baroni, said in court that some of the evidence would be challenged, per AAP.