'Freak accident' kills skydiver

Ms Causer held four world records (pic: www.jumpforthecause.com)

A world record-holding skydiver has been killed in a "freak accident" after colliding with another jumper at an event in Spain.

Tamsin Causer collided with her friend, Maria Russell, during an exit jump from a plane and crashed into the sea in Empuriabrava, near Barcelona.

Miss Causer, 32, of Newell Green, Bracknell, Berkshire, was knocked unconscious and drowned.

The pair were part of a group of about 30 people jumping from about 12,500ft.

Miss Causer's mother, Hazel, has paid tribute to her daughter, saying she was "full of life" and "loved learning new stuff".

It was a freak accident, very unlucky. In this case there was no human error, just extremely bad luck A SkyDive Empuriabrava spokesman

She said Miss Causer recently bought a house with her boyfriend, Gavin, and they had celebrated her 32nd birthday together as a family last weekend.

Mrs Causer, of Horsham, West Sussex, told the BBC News website: "She lived life at a manic pace.

"I know she was only 32 but you'd go a long way to find another 32-year-old who packed so much into her life."

She said she was very proud of her daughter's achievements, which included kickboxing, fencing, scuba diving and four world parachuting records.

"I still have the text she sent that said 'we did it, we did it, we did it'", Mrs Causer said.

Friends and fellow parachutists have also been paying tribute on a skydiving website, Drop Zone.

One entry reads: "Taz is going to be missed by everyone. It's hard to imagine someone so young, so spirited, so intelligent gone."

A spokesman for SkyDive Empuriabrava, which helped to organise the jump on Saturday, said he believed Miss Causer was knocked unconscious when Ms Russell's leg hit her head.

'Very experienced'

"It was very, very bad luck, a one in a million chance," he said.

"As the sky-divers were exiting the plane, Tamsin was knocked out, which made it impossible for her to fly her parachute. She landed in the sea.

"Tamsin was a very experienced sky-diver. It was a freak accident, very unlucky. In this case there was no human error, just extremely bad luck."

He said Ms Russell had not been seriously injured and had now left hospital.

In February, Miss Causer became the first person ever to hold four world parachuting records at once when she was among 960 people involved in mass free fall in Thailand.