{"id":451128,"date":"2026-03-01T00:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451128\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:22:07","slug":"man-49-dies-taking-part-in-skydive-at-devon-airfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451128\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 49, dies taking part in skydive at Devon airfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incident comes less than a year after two people died while taking part in a tandem jump at the same airfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Skydiving instructor Adam Harrison, 30, and Belinda Taylor, 48, who was strapped to him, died when their parachute failed to open at Dunkeswell on 13 June 2025.<\/p>\n

The skydiving company that organised the tandem jump later went into administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harrison, from Bournemouth, and Taylor, from Totnes, Devon, suffered multiple injuries after their skydive from 15,000ft (4.6km).<\/p>\n

In a statement about Saturday’s death, Devon and Cornwall Police said: “Police were called to Dunkeswell Aerodrome just before 1pm today, Saturday 28 February, following concerns for the welfare of a male skydiver.<\/p>\n

“Emergency services attended the scene, where sadly a 49-year-old man was confirmed deceased. His family have been informed.”<\/p>\n

The Dunkeswell Aerodrome is a former RAF site located in the Blackdown Hills area of Devon, close to the county’s border with Somerset.<\/p>\n

According to the aerodrome’s website, the site was originally built to be an US naval base during World War Two.<\/p>\n

It is also claimed to be the highest licensed airfield in the UK at 839ft (256m) above sea level.<\/p>\n

Along with skydiving, other activities on offer include Spitfire flight tours, wing-walking and flight training for aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The incident comes less than a year after two people died while taking part in a tandem jump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-451128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}