🔗 Share this article

The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the death of a skydiving instructor after he got detached from his student during a jump in Nashville, Tennessee.

Authorities say trainer the instructor "appears to have dropped from the sky without a safety chute" during the jump on Saturday.

Fuller, 35, seems to have separated from his client and a dual harness, which connects the two during a dive and includes the parachute.

A law enforcement aircraft located Fuller's body in a wooded area hours later. The Nashville Fire Department used several ladders to access the 46-year old client who lived through the descent after being trapped on a tree branch for some time with the emergency parachute.

Police said several additional jumps, which occurred near a local airport, were carried out without incident before the deadly incident. The plane from which they jumped also landed safely.

It is unclear how Mr Fuller, an seasoned parachutist, got detached from the safety equipment.

A man who helped fire crews in the rescue informed a media outlet the student who officials saved mentioned "he was a first-time jumper, and it was going to be his final one".

Mr Fuller had previously posted about his passion for instructing people how to parachute.

"Teaching people to parachute has consistently been in my view the most satisfying job at the drop zone," Mr Fuller said in an social media update in June.

"Observing students learn the skills and start flying their bodies is consistently a heartwarming experience. Occasionally though, it can become quite chaotic up there when you let someone go for their first time."

That same month he posted photos of the damage a jump aircraft he was on noting the plane's engine had malfunctioned after departure. All 20 people aboard survived.