🔗 Share this article

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the death of a skydiving instructor after he became separated from his client during a dive in Nashville, Tennessee.

Police say instructor Justin Fuller "appears to have dropped from the air without a parachute" during the dive on Saturday.

The instructor, 35 years old, seems to have separated from his client and a dual harness, which links the two during a jump and contains the parachute.

A police helicopter located Fuller's body in a forested zone hours later. Local emergency crews used multiple pieces of equipment to access the middle-aged client who survived the fall after being stuck on a tree for some time with the backup chute.

Officials said several additional jumps, which occurred near a local airport, were successfully completed prior to the deadly incident. The plane from which they leaped also landed safely.

The cause remains unknown how Mr Fuller, an experienced skydiver, became separated from the protective gear.

A individual who assisted rescue teams in the rescue told a local television station the student who authorities rescued said "it was his first jump, and it was going to be his last".

The instructor had previously posted about his enthusiasm for instructing people how to parachute.

"Instructing individuals to skydive has always been in my view the most satisfying role at the drop zone," Mr Fuller wrote in an Instagram post in the summer.

"Observing students figure it out and begin maneuvering their selves is consistently a heartwarming moment. Occasionally though, it can become quite chaotic up there when you release a student for their first time."

That same month he posted images of the damage a skydiving plane he was on saying the plane's engine had failed after departure. All 20 people aboard survived.