Skydiver's surgery after lucky escape

A skydiver who spiralled out of control for 1,000ft before crashing onto the roof of a Shropshire farm building has undergone exploratory surgery – as investigations were launched into the incident.

Paul Lewis, from Shrewsbury, suffered neck and back injuries in the incident, which happened during a skydive near Whitchurch. Mr Lewis is a 40-year-old freelance cameraman with 20 years' skydiving experience.

He was filming a first-time parachutist in a tandem jump when his parachute malfunctioned.

He crashed down on to the roof of a grain storage hangar at Higher Heath, near Prees, about half a mile from The Parachute Centre at Tilstock Airfield where he was due to land on Friday afternoon.

Today Colin Fitzmaurice, who runs The Parachute Centre, said an investigation had been launched into the incident and Mr Lewis had undergone the surgery on Saturday.

He said: "It's an ongoing investigation internally.

"His main parachute malfunctioned and he released that routinely.

"When he opened his reserve parachute it did inflate fine but there was some issue with the steering lines.

"The parachute started to spiral and continued to spiral all the way until he landed on the roof.

"The roof where he landed was right between two steel rafters.

"He actually landed on the sheeted part of the roof which did flex and took a lot of the impact which probably saved him.

"If he had hit the ground it would have been a bit more serious. We're hoping that he is going to make a full recovery."

Mr Fitzmaurice, 54, said the incident was filmed by Mr Lewis as his camera remained on during the fall until it switched itself off on impact.

Mr Lewis was airlifted to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.

A spokesman, from the hospital, today said Mr Lewis was in a "poorly but stable" condition.

He confirmed the skydiver had undergone exploratory surgery on Saturday and would now be moved to a different ward which he said was an "encouraging sign".

The problems with Mr Lewis's chute happened about 1,000ft from the ground during the 10,000ft skydive.

On Saturday West Midlands Ambulance Service said Mr Lewis had a "lucky escape".

By John Kirk