Funeral held for British skydiver

Clare Barnes had skydived 200 times

The funeral of British skydiver Clare Barnes has been held in Australia.

Her parents, newsreader Carol Barnes and Europe minister Denis MacShane, attended the funeral in Melbourne on Friday morning.

Miss Barnes, 24, died at the weekend after her parachute failed to open properly during a 14,000ft jump.

An interim report into the accident by the Australian Parachute Federation blamed poor gear maintenance and incorrect parachute packing.

Miss Barnes was killed when attempting her 200th jump with her boyfriend and seven other members of a skydiving club.

Experienced skydiver

"Her friends organised a church service in the morning, followed by cremation and there was a wake this afternoon," a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed.

Miss Barnes, who went to school in Brighton, had been in Australia for eight months and her boyfriend Chris McDougall was a former Australian skydiving champion.

She was an experienced skydiver and a licensed parachute packer and is likely to have packed her equipment herself, according to the APF.

'High-speed malfunction'

Graeme Windsor, the APF's national safety and operations manager, said: "Because the pilot chute was not packed properly it did not produce enough drag."

The report said: "When Clare activated her main parachute release at the correct altitude, she experienced a high-speed malfunction.

"It appears that Clare then followed correct emergency procedures by pulling the main parachute release system, followed by the reserve ripcord.

"Unfortunately, the main parachute did not release as it should have, and the reserve parachute became entangled with it, preventing either parachute from opening correctly."

Mr Windsor said the major factors in the tragedy were "poor gear maintenance and packing".

A final report will wait for the findings of the coroner's inquest.