Jade Damarell, 32, died from blunt trauma after a 15,500ft fall in County Durham.
An experienced skydiver, Jade Damarell, 32, lost her life after falling 15,500ft into a field in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, on April 27, 2025. She suffered fatal blunt trauma injuries. On Thursday, the coroner, Leslie Hamilton, confirmed her death was deliberate.
Damarell, from Caerphilly in Wales, had completed more than 500 jumps during her skydiving career and had made six dives the day before her final jump, according to The Guardian.
At Crook Civic Centre, the inquest heard that she had ended her relationship the night before her death.
According to the Daily Mail, the couple had been together for over six months and lived in a property rented to parachutists near the airfield.
“The two of them were inseparable. They spent all their time together,” a friend told the Daily Mail.
On her final dive, she intentionally left her main parachute unopened, despite it normally being deployed at 5,000ft, and disabled a backup device designed to activate automatically.
Investigators later confirmed that both pieces of equipment were in proper working order.
Police evidence also showed Damarell usually wore a camera during her jumps but chose not to on that day.
Detective Inspector Andrew Stephenson of Durham Police told the inquest that she had left instructions on her phone for how to access it after her death.
Notes written to her family were also found, in which she apologised, thanked them for their support, and included details of her finances, The Guardian reported.
After the inquest, her family expressed gratitude to the skydiving community, saying they were comforted by how admired and deeply loved she had been.
