Skydivers Die in Freak Accident After Parachutes Tangle Mid-Air Over Italy 

What should have been a breathtaking jump through clear blue skies turned into a nightmare in seconds — as two highly experienced skydivers collided mid-air, their parachutes tangling together before they plummeted to their deaths.

The tragedy unfolded on December 14 in Fano, a small town near Venice, Italy. Witnesses say the moment was “unreal — like watching a slow-motion disaster.”

The victims have been identified as 70-year-old Italian instructor Ermes Zampa, a beloved veteran with over 2,000 jumps and three decades in the sport, and Violetta Laiketsion, 63, a Brazilian skydiving champion who had completed more than 6,000 dives around the world. Both were part of a group of 14 skydivers taking part in a weekend jump.

According to investigators, Zampa was the first to leap from the plane and Laiketsion the last. Somewhere during their descent — roughly 30 meters, or about 100 feet, above the ground — their parachutes brushed against each other and became fatally entangled. In the next instant, both canopies collapsed, leaving the pair helplessly spinning toward the earth.

“It all happened in a blink,” said Roberto Mascio, director of Skydive Fano. “You can see it clearly in the video. The two canopies touch, twist, and suddenly they’re falling. At that altitude, there’s no time to react, no time to cut away or deploy reserves. Just seconds between life and death.”

Mascio described the aftermath as “a disaster that left everyone in shock,” adding that even the most experienced jumpers can be caught off guard. “Lately, these kinds of accidents come down to human error — one small misjudgment, one second of distraction, and you can be too close to another canopy before you realize it.”

Emergency crews rushed to the scene, but both Zampa and Laiketsion were pronounced dead on impact. Their parachutes were found intertwined on the ground beside them, a haunting reminder of how quickly precision and grace can turn into chaos in the sky.

Authorities are reviewing footage from multiple cameras and interviewing witnesses as part of an ongoing investigation.

For Italy’s tight-knit skydiving community, the loss is devastating — two respected veterans gone in a freak accident that stunned even those who spend their lives defying gravity.

As one fellow jumper told local reporters: “They lived for the skies. It’s unthinkable that the sky took them back this way.”