A British base jumper has been killed after his parachute failed to open.
Dylan Morris Roberts, 33, died during the accident in the Italian Alps on Friday – just a day after an Australian was killed in a similar incident.
The former skydiving instructor was reportedly with a group of five friends in the popular hiking area of Monte Brento in the northern region of Trentino when he jumped from a height of 800m.
He is said to have jumped from a spot known locally as “Happy Birthday” at about 7am but hit the side of the mountain after falling for about 200m, according to onlookers.
It is thought the experienced skydiver’s parachute failed to deploy, although local police have been quoted as suggesting he may have miscalculated his trajectory.
Mountain rescuers managed to recover his body after being called to the scene.
Mr Roberts was a trained skydiving instructor who had worked with the British Parachute School based at Langar, Nottinghamshire.
He also enjoyed base jumping – a sport which involves jumping from fixed objects such as bridges, buildings and cliffs and using a parachute to descend safely to the ground.
In September 2018 he wrote on Facebook: “Some of the happiest memories I have are teaching people to skydive and see the pure happiness painted in the beaming smiles on their faces.
“I’ll always remember them by those happy moments in free fall.”
Mr Roberts previously paid tribute to father-of-two Aiden Chaffe, 31, from Derbyshire, who died in a skydiving accident in Langar in 2018.
He wrote at the time: “You were a brother to me Aiden, we blew a daft kiss to each other before you jumped from the plane that final time and with that big daft smile of yours on your face!”
Following news of Mr Roberts’s death, a friend, referring to Mr Chaffe, wrote on his Facebook page: “I hope both of you guys are reunited in the sky now.”
The Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who died in Italy, and are in contact with local authorities.”
Mr Roberts’s death came just one day after Australian Matthew Glen Munting, 35, died in similar circumstances in the Italian Alps.
Mr Munting died after hitting a gully off Mount Simone on Thursday morning.
He has been described as one of the most experienced base jumpers in the world and was reportedly working as a base jumping instructor at the time of his death.
