A CORONER investigating the death of a North-East skydiving student has questioned whether new safety rules should be introduced to prevent future tragedies.

G-forces almost seven times those experienced by a fighter pilot prevented Pamela Ann Gower from opening her parachute when she started to spin while freefalling on September 10.

The 49-year-old, from Hebburn, South Tyneside, hit a parked car in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, and suffered fatal injuries.

At an inquest in Crook today (Tuesday), County Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle heard Ms Gower had been working towards an accelerated freefall qualification with the Skydive Academy at Peterlee Parachute Centre.

She had reached level six which includes a skydiver completing a solo exit and destabilising and correcting their position.

Ms Gower, who was born with dwarfism, underwent tuition in Spain and in Peterlee, where staff insisted she carried out additional training in a wind tunnel.

Prior to the jump on September 10, she acquired a custom-made harness, devotedly practised her stability drills on the ground and successfully deployed her own parachute during a jump on August 5.

And although Ms Gower continued her ground training, her family expressed concerns about the five-week gap between the two jumps. They questioned whether she should have had more sessions in the air tunnel to perfect the barrel roll and arching stability techniques.

Her instructor Michelle Meakins said Ms Gower had been a capable student and had received a higher than required level of training.

“Pamela was a very determined and dedicated student,”she said. “Out of all of the students she wanted it the most. She was also a friend of mine so this is hard for me.”

On the day of the accident, Ms Gower, an employment advisor for Remploy, took two attempts to make the jump, and dived with Miss Meakins holding on to her leg.

Video footage showed her lose stability, attempt a barrel roll but start to spin. And despite several attempts, she was unable to release her parachute. Her emergency parachute did deploy but the landing proved fatal.

Tony Butler, chief operating officer and instructor examiner, at the British Parachute Association (BPA), said Ms Gower’s small stature would have made the arching technique employed to stop spinning “much more difficult.”

He stressed that no rules had been broken but said limiting the amount of time between students’ jumps and their progression through the levels was something the BPA may consider.

“I am not suggesting any wrong doing,” he said. “I am just asking the questions as an organisation.”

Mr Tweddle returned a conclusion of death by misadventure and pledged to write to the BPA to further highlight the timing concerns.