Pamela Gower hit a parked auto in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, at around 3.45pm on Saturday after her parachute failed to open properly.
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“I could hear a fluttering noise and it sounded unusual”, he said.
A police spokesperson said: “An investigation involving Durham Constabulary, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the British Parachute Association is underway”.
The coroner has been informed and a post-mortem examination is due to be carried out on the woman’s body.
The woman, from the nearby town of Hebburn, was taken to hospital, where she died.
The parachutist who crashed into a parked auto had been “spinning like a top” as she fell to the ground, The Guardian reported, quoting a witness as saying. She was not screaming.
The Great North Air Ambulance Service flew the woman to the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, from the scene.
Detective Inspector Dave Cuthbert added: “This is a tragic incident”.
Witnesses said the sky diver did not scream during the descent and had her legs and arms open prior to hitting a hatchback vehicle, which was parked outside a detached home on a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of the village, about 400 metres from a skydiving centre based at Shotton airfield.
He said: “She’s come down because a parachute hasn’t opened properly”.
In her profile picture she is seen grinning and dressed in parachuting gear with the caption: “Nothing makes me more happy than skydiving, can’t wait for the next jump!”
“We deployed the air ambulance, two ambulance and paramedics to the scene”.
Ian Rosenvinge, manager of the Peterlee Parachute Centre, told the newspaper that she would have jumped from around 15,000 feet.
“The rotating canopy caused her to descend faster than usual which meant she hit the ground very hard”.
“She became tangled in the ropes”.
“The police have taken the equipment”.
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The man heard the impact of her hitting the vehicle, which he said was “an almighty clatter”, but thankfully he did not see it.
