Parachute That Failed In South Jersey Skydiving Death Found

WILLIAMSTOWN, NJ — The main parachute belonging to a skydiver who was killed in an accident in New Jersey was found Tuesday morning, but it wasn’t yet clear if it would provide any clues as to what went wrong in Sunday’s accident.

Paul Haaf Jr., 54, of Monroe Township died after he jumped out of an airplane at Skydive Cross Keys in the Williamstown area at 5:06 p.m. Sunday evening, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.

His main parachute would not deploy, so he had to disconnect himself from it, according to Thomas Gilbert, the spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office. His body was found on Brookdale Boulevard in Monroe Township about 13 minutes after he jumped.

On Tuesday morning, the prosecutor’s office said it found the main parachute about a mile away from where Haaf was found, in a wooded area near the Atlantic City Expressway.

It was found late Monday afternoon following an aerial search with help from New Jersey State Police. On Tuesday morning, Gilbert wasn’t sure if detectives had a chance to look at the parachute by Tuesday morning.

“I don’t know if we will learn anything new about what happened,” Gilbert said.

An investigation by the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office, the Monroe Township Police Department and the Federal Aviation Administration is ongoing.

Read more here: Victim ID’d In Fatal Skydiving Accident In South Jersey

After the accident, the Monroe Township Police Department was dispatched to the area of Brookdale and Herbert boulevards in Williamstown after the injured skydiver was discovered in the roadway, authorities said. Haaf was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gloucester County Medical Examiner Gerald Feigin conducted an autopsy on Haaf and determined that his cause of death was multiple injuries and listed the manner of his death as accidental.

Haaf was described as an experienced skydiver with over 1,200 jumps and was a frequent visitor to SkyDive Cross Keys, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The last fatal accident connected to SkyDive Cross Keys came in 2014, when a Brooklyn man’s parachute failed and he crashed into the backyard of a Gloucester County home. The victim in that case, Arkady Shenker, was described as an experienced skydiver with over 350 jumps.

According to the United States Parachute Association, last year saw the fewest skydiving fatalities nationwide since 2000, at 13. There were a total of 3.3 million jumps nationwide, the second highest number of jumps in a single year over that same span.