Australian soldier dies during army parachute training at Jervis Bay Airfield – as another is injured
An Australian Army soldier has been killed and another has been injured after a parachute training exercise went horribly wrong on the NSW South Coast.
The Australian Defence Force confirmed the tragedy occurred during a parachute training course at Jervis Bay Airfield on Monday night.
Another soldier was also injured at the military aerodrome, but did not require hospitalisation.
‘We request that the privacy of Defence members and families is respected at this time,’ an ADF statement read.
‘Defence will provide further updates when possible.’
The Department of Defence and Defence Minister Richard Marles are expected to provide more details later on Tuesday.
‘This is obviously a very, very deep tragedy,’ Health Minister Mark Butler told reporters.
The latest tragedy comes just two years after Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former minister and Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, tragically died following a parachuting incident during a military training exercise.
An Australian Army soldier has died during a parachuting training course on the NSW South Coast (stock image)
The latest tragedy comes two years after the death of Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon
Lance Corporal Fitzgibbon, 33, suffered critical head injuries during a training drill at the Richmond RAAF Base in Sydney’s north-west in March 2024.
It is understood his parachute failed to open during a training exercise and he was forced to use a knife to try and free himself in order to deploy his reserve chute.
Lance Corporal Fitzgibbon was rushed to Westmead Hospital, where he later died.
His father Joel, who served as Australia’s defence minister between 2007 and 2009, was at a restaurant when he learned about the accident, later describing it as ‘the worst call of my life’.
He then received another call from Marles on his way to the hospital.
‘(I was) trying to think the best but when Richard Marles called me about halfway out there (to the hospital), you know, having made those calls myself, I knew that for the minister, to be advised it was very, very serious,’ he recalled.
‘I used to be making these calls, never expecting to be receiving one.’
Mr Fitzgibbon added that he was ‘comforted’ by the fact his son died doing something he loved and lost his life in service for his country.
The tragedy happened at Jervis Bay Airfield, a military aerodrome on the NSW South Coast
‘We’re not going to be an angry family, obviously we sort of are embedded in the defence family ourselves,’ he said.
‘We owe it to Jack and those who will still jump or are still jumping to ask the hard questions.’
In a separate incident, another Australian Army soldier Tulsa Rumney, 26, died and two others were injured in a vehicle rollover during a routine training exercise at the Townsville Field Training Area in Far North Queensland last October.
More to come.
