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Chris Proffitt/Eyewitness News
Flora - A veteran Indiana police officer was killed after his parachute malfunctioned during a skydiving accident.
Investigators say 36-year-old Elkhart Police officer Dan Drust was about 11,000 feet up when the accident occurred as his brother and sister watched on the ground at Flora Indiana airport. It was a solo jump he apparently performed many times, but this time, the six-year veteran officer plunged to his death, landing in an airport field in front of horrified witnesses.
"He was very positive and passionate about the work he did. You could tell that in the people he trained over the years," said Elkhart Police Assistant Chief Tim Balyeat.
The owners of the skydiving company say that Drust went into a spin after deploying his primary chute, causing him to become entangled in his secondary chute, preventing it from deploying.
He died at the scene.
The Federal Aviation Administration and Indiana State Police are investigating the accident, including who packed Drust's main parachute. Each year, about 30 people die in parachuting accidents in the United States, roughly one person per 100,000 jumps. According to the U.S. Parachute Association, rarely do skydiving accidents result from equipment failure.
"I spoke to a member of the airport board this morning and to his knowledge, this is the first fatality we've had in Carroll County resulting from a sky diving incident," said Flora Police Chief Paul Redmon.
Officer Drust's death has shaken members of his police department, where he was also a member of the department's SWAT team.
