Skydiving instructor death: What to know on the sport and safety

Daniel Herndon opens up on his harrowing experience on 'Happening Now'

A skydiving instructor and tandem student were in an accident that led to the instructor’s death and the student suffering serious injuries.

The incident occurred in Waller County, Texas, where the skydiving instructor had been guiding their student through a tandem skydive lesson on behalf of Skydive Houston – a drop zone that offers skydive services from up to 13,500 feet. In a tandem lesson, the student shares a parachute with an instructor.

Skydive Houston issued a news release on Sunday confirming the incident occurred on Saturday, Feb. 19, at around 12:30 p.m. CST.

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"[The tandem instructor and tandem student] were air-lifted to an area trauma center where the tandem instructor later succumbed to his injuries," Skydive Houston wrote in the issued statement. "The female tandem student is reported to be suffering from serious, but non-life-threatening injuries at this time."

The Texas-based skydive company wrote that "Skydive Houston has an excellent safety record, and significant injuries associated with tandem skydiving are extremely rare" while citing a skydiving safety statistics webpage put together by the United States Parachute Association (USPA).

The USPA reports that the skydiving fatality rate is 0.39 fatalities per 100,000 jumps. The organization came up with this calculation based on the records it has on file from 2020, which states approximately 2.8 million skydiving jumps were completed at more than 200 USPA-affiliated skydive centers.

Skydiving fatality rates have mostly trended downward in the last two decades, according to data published by the