New Jersey Man Killed in Skydiving Accident

Daniel Kulpa, a 22-year-old skydiver from New Jersey, fell to his death Friday afternoon when his harness came loose during a jump in Florida, sending him into a free fall.

Kulpa was on a sky-diving vacation, was performing his second jump of the day when the accident occurred shortly after 1 p.m., police said. Kulpa was pronounced dead at the scene. Results from an autopsy conducted yesterday are expected to be released in the next few weeks, Sebastian police Detective Ron Carlson said.

Kulpa’s best friend, Adam Gollatz of Williamstown, Gloucester County, said Kulpa, who had more than 100 jumps on his record, was an experienced sky diver but was wearing a “wingsuit,” an outfit with flap-like arms that enables a diver to glide through the air. It was the first time Kulpa had jumped with the wingsuit, said Gollatz, who was on the trip but was jumping at a different location Friday.

The general rule of thumb, he said, is that a diver is qualified to wear a wingsuit after several hundred jumps.

“I just didn’t think he was ready for it,” said Gollatz, 20.

Carlson said officers responding to the scene near the Sebastian Municipal Airport found Kulpa’s body about 1,000 feet from where his parachute had become entangled in power lines.

Kulpa’s group started on the west coast of Florida several days earlier and made its way to Sebastian, a popular sky-diving hot spot about midway between Melbourne and Vero Beach.

The group signed up for an excursion with Skydive Sebastian, a 7-acre recreational center that caters to sky divers of all levels, according to the company’s website. Company officials did not return several calls yesterday.

Reviews of video footage showed that while Kulpa’s parachute had deployed properly, his harness had not been completely attached to his legs, Carlson said.

“It looks like the harness came off,” Carlson said.