Mt Warrigal skydiving veteran killed

By Angela Thompson
Updated November 6 2012 - 12:56am, first published September 26 2010 - 10:37am
A 2002 picture of Fiona McEachern, killed on Saturday.
A 2002 picture of Fiona McEachern, killed on Saturday.

Skydiving veteran Fiona McEachern has died in a shock canopy collision in Queensland.The 50-year-old Mt Warrigal veterinary surgeon was taking part in an event at Tully when she and another skydiver collided under fully-inflated parachutes about 12.30pm on Saturday.Police in Tully confirmed the second skydiver, aged 42 from Townsville, landed safely and went to Dr McEachern's aid.The Queensland's Department of Community Safety, which oversees ambulance activity, said paramedics treated a woman at Tully Airport. She was given CPR and taken to Tully Hospital but declared deceased on arrival.

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  • VIDEO: Australian Parachute Federation CEO remembers Fiona McEachernDr McEachern is the wife of Wollongong Medical Centre GP John Cusack, himself a keen skydiver who has since retired from the sport.Dr Cusack's interest in the sport led to Dr McEachern's first skydive at Picton 26 years ago. She went on to become a respected coach and ambassador for the sport.She was considered an authority on several aspects of formation skydiving, even writing a piece for the Australian Parachute Foundation website on how to avoid canopy collisions."As the trend to smaller and faster canopies continues the chances of becoming involved in off-heading openings and canopy collisions are increasing," she wrote. "Things happen much faster, you have less time to react to the situation and you should have some form of response ready, just as you do for a malfunction."In a profile in Australian Skydiver Magazine in 2004 she talked about how she learnt from close calls she had experienced. "There have been a few that I have walked away from thinking wow that was close ... I have always walked away learning and thinking what happened and how can we stop that occurring next time. That's the way I diffuse the scary bits."She told the magazine she counted two silver medals - from the Australian four-way open division and from the women's four-way division at the World Cup in Portugal in 1998 - among her greatest achievements.
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