SAS soldier dies during parachute training in Jervis Bay
Updated ,first published
An experienced Australian soldier died in a mid-air collision during a parachute training jump.
The soldier was identified as Warrant Officer Second Class Lachlan Muddle, a 50-year-old SAS sniper who was involved in training the course.
He joined the army in 1994 and the special operations command in 2007, spending most of his time in the SAS.
“He was operationally experienced. He was a highly qualified special forces sniper and military freelance paratrooper,” Australian Army Special Operations Commander Major General Garth Gould said in a statement on Tuesday.
A second soldier, also an instructor, was also injured in the incident at Jervis Bay Airport on Monday but did not require hospitalisation.
“This was a mid-air collision between two experienced paratroopers,” Gould said.
The collision occurred several hundred meters above the ground during the fourth week of a six-week block of advanced military freefall training, Gould said.
Following the incident, all parachute training was suspended.
Defense Minister Richard Marles is also expected to hold a press conference on Tuesday.
Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon (33), son of former defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon, died in a parachute training incident at RAAF Richmond Base, northwest of Sydney, in March 2024.
This led to several investigations and the suspension of all parachute training for two months.
The criminal investigation in NSW is ongoing but a date for the hearing has not yet been set.
The ABC reported in May 2024 that six soldiers based at the Richmond RAAF base, including five members of a unit collecting parachutes for military exercises, were facing deportation after failing drug screening tests in the days before Fitzgibbon’s death.
However, Defense insisted to the ABC that “all personnel involved in packing and checking Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon’s parachute tested negative for prohibited substances.”
Monday’s incident is the latest Defense training death since a soldier was killed when his armored personnel carrier rolled over during an exercise near Townsville in October.
from AAP
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
