Skydiver, 65, Plummets to His Death After Parachute Failure While 5,000 Spectators Look On

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A skydiver plummeted to his death Saturday after his parachute appeared to become tangled just before he was to give a demonstration to a California festival attended by thousands.

The unidentified 65-year-old was reportedly a seasoned skydiver. However, one witness said his chute became tangled immediately after he exited the aircraft.

Witness Linda Carbon was one of around 5,000 people at the Madera Pomegranate Festival on Saturday. She told the Fresno Bee she watched as the wind blew the man across the sky before he smashed back down to earth in a parking area at the Madera Municipal Airport.

Read: Watch Former Walmart CEO Use Emergency Parachute to Land Plane

She said the man struck the ground about 200 feet from her and that many people saw the horrifying tragedy unfold--and some even heard the man hit the ground, she said.

Carbon believed the skydiver unsuccessfully tried to cut away the tangled chute before then attempting to deploy his back-up chute to no avail.

The Madera police and Federal Aviation Administration planned to work together to investigate the cause of the tragedy.

Just a few weeks before the incident, a skydiver in Peru got the scare of his life when his jumpsuit got stuck to the plane as he was about to jump from the aircraft.

Read: Nearly Cut In Half! Parachute Jump Narrowly Misses Airplane

Fernando Gava, an experienced jumper with over 1,000 skydives in his career, was stuck for about 30 minutes while the plane was flying at an altitude of about 10,000 feet.

He dangled outside the plane while upside down as his paint leg was caught on the exit step. His horrified friends and family watched down on the ground.

"I was quiteworried that he might have to land with the plane, because he was a very experienced skydiver he was able to think clearly and use his hook knife (a little safety knife that all skydivers carry for emergencies) and cut the leg off his jump suit," his friend Maurice Mathey said in an email to INSIDE EDITION. "It was very lucky that the plane had just filled up the tanks with fuel before taking off so that he had enough time to cut his jumpsuit away."

Gava was able to free himself by using a knife and cutting the suit. Once he was loose, he was able to parachute back to Earth.

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