A beloved 60-year-old skydiver died after plummeting to the ground when his parachute did not fully open, according to authorities.
Just after 3 p.m. on Nov. 16, authorities received a report of a parachuter face down and unresponsive in a field in Boulder County, Colorado, according to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
Shortly after officials attempted to perform CPR on the man, later identified as Takashi Koyama, he was pronounced dead, according to cops and the Boulder County Coroner.
A witness at the landing site saw Koyama rapidly free-falling in a spin when he was a few hundred feet above the ground, noting it appeared his parachute was not fully deployed, police added.
“I noticed there was something green on the ground,” a witness named Danielle told KCNC,
“And I thought it looked like a parachute, and there were parachutes still coming down. I see skydivers every day, tons of them.”
“And I hopped the fence and ran over, called 911 when I noticed it was a person on the ground, and they walked me through CPR until first responders were able to get here,” Danielle said.
The incident occurred at a field near Mile-High Skydiving Center, which confirmed to the outlet that an incident occurred that day, according to the report.
Koyama was qualified to make solo parachuting jumps, police said.
His son, Shizuka Koyama, described his father in a GoFundMe statement as “a remarkable man who cherished both Japan and America, the lands he called home and loved deeply.”
The son, who is a nursing student, heartbreakingly revealed that his mother had also passed away years ago and that he is “the only one left to handle everything,” he wrote.
The fundraiser to help Shizuka cremate and lay his father to rest in both Japan and the US in “a tribute to the life he lived to the fullest,” has raised over $1,300 of its $7,000 goal.
