Skydiver falls to his death on street in Gloucester County, NJ

🔴 The man jumped from a plane flown by Skydive Cross Keys out of Cross Keys Airport

🔴 This is the 2nd fatal skydiving incident out of the Cross Keys Airport in the past 4 years

MONROE TOWNSHIP (Gloucester) — A skydiver fell to his death after jumping from a plane on Wednesday afternoon.

Gloucester County Prosecutors Office chief investigator Thomas Gilbert said Timothy Joseph Slachta, 48, of Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania jumped from a plane flown by Skydive Cross Keys, a company that offers people the chance to leap based at the Cross Keys Airport in the Williamstown section of Monroe Township.

Slachta landed on the ground in the Stirling Glen Development around 1 p.m.

Parachute failure?

Gilbert told New Jersey 101.5 that a preliminary investigation has determined his parachute did not deploy. The investigation is ongoing to determine if the chute malfunctioned or if operator error was involved.

Skydive Cross Keys in a statement to 6ABC Action News and NJ.com said Slatcha has jumped over 700 times in the past decade. The company says his parachute deployed at a normal altitude and appeared to be fully inflated.

Residents of the Stirling Glen Development told 6 ABC Action News the man was "swirling" and appeared to not be awake.

This is the second fatal skydiving incident out of the Cross Keys Airport in the past four years.

Paul Haff Jr, an experienced jumper who had gone up over 1,200 times, died in 2019 when he went into an uncontrollable fall even after his parachute deployed.

Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com

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