A PARACHUTIST told an inquest how a young man he jumped with suffered fatal injuries after attempting to execute a dangerous manoeuvre before landing.

Ethan Brentwood, 27, died after he attempted a low hook turn, said to increase adrenaline flow, at Headcorn Aerodrome on Easter Sunday morning.

John Hartley, of Farleigh Hill, Tovil, told the inquest at Maidstone that Mr Brentwood had hit the ground at about the same time as his parachute after they jumped together from a plane at a height of 12,000 ft.

He said: "We were flying belly to earth and performing docking manoeuvres which we did without any incident down to our planned breaking height, which was 4,000ft, and put our parachutes into different air space.

"I opened my parachute at about 3,000ft. I looked across to Ethan because I expected him to be flying on a similar level.

"He was quite a bit lower when I saw him. He may have had a slower opening. I thought he was in control and flying the parachute normally."

Mr Hartley said as he approached the landing area, Mr Brentwood was initially upwind, before turning downwind back towards where he was.

"Then he turned around about 90 degrees to the north or windline and executed a turn of about 270 degrees," he added.

Mr Hartley said Mr Brentwood and the parachute more or less hit the ground at the same time.

"I looked back and he wasn't moving, so he had obviously hit the ground very hard," he said, "As soon as I landed I broke up my parachute and grabbed the emergency flag and started running back towards him."

Mr Hartley said that a number of other people had arrived at the scene before him. They checked Mr Brentwood was breathing, that he was in the recovery position and called an ambulance.

However, Mr Brentwood, as avionics engineer, of Bankside Close, Biggin Hill, died at Maidstone Hospital that evening.

Jumpmaster Simon Hughes, of Pittlesden, Tenterden, said the procedure was called a low hook turn and caused an adrenaline rush because of the speed created.

Mr Hughes said that turning low to the ground in a dive was "very, very dangerous" and that the British Parachute Association had issued guidelines warning people not to do the manoeuvre.

He said he knew Mr Brentwood had been experimenting but not to what degree. "I had said to him in the past that he might want to be a bit more careful," he said.

The inquest was told that an investigation by the British Parachute Association had found that Mr Brentwood had miscalculated the height needed to safely complete the swoop landing.

Pathologist Dr Michael Heath, who carried out a post-mortem examination on April 15, said death was due to multiple injuries.

Mid Kent and Medway Deputy Coroner Stephen Beck recorded that Mr Brentwood had died as a result of an accident.

He added: "I understand that the British Parachuting Association is the organisation that controls the sport of parachuting and I therefore intend to write that organisation recommending that they remind their members that manoeuvres in these situations can lead to very tragic circumstances."