12 Jan 2018

Skydiving accident victim was a US tourist - police

12:55 pm on 12 January 2018

A missing skydiver who is believed to have died after falling into Lake Wakatipu during a tandem skydive is an American tourist in his 20s, police have confirmed.

Lake Wakatipu from Frankton.

Lake Wakatipu Photo: RNZ / Ian Telfer

A search has failed to find the man, who plunged into the lake on Wednesday while harnessed to his instructor.

The jumpmaster from the company NZONE was rescued from the lake 20 minutes later.

Police said the recovery of the tourist's body will be a complex operation, given the lake has a depth of 250m.

Police have been considering using sonar technology to find his body.

Witnesses of the skydiving accident are now being interviewed by transport accident investigators.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission said two investigators were interviewing people who saw the accident to establish what went wrong.

It said one of the people interviewed will be a helicopter pilot who saw the plunge from the air and initiated a rescue attempt.

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