Jill Buss was tending to horses at Dillingham Ranch when she noticed something overhead.
"The parachute was un-opened and dangling below, spiraling thought for sure it was someone attached to it," she said. "It looked like someone was spiraling underneath it."
Within minutes, employees of Skydive Hawaii were on scene looking for lost skydiver, Kenneth Owens. They spotted him face down, unconscious in a pond.
"In very shallow water because when a man got over to him he was in waist deep water," said Buss.
27-year-old Owens was pulled out of the water, and later pronounced dead.
Friends says Owens had taken two previous jumps with other skydivers at 13-thousand feet, but on his third jump he likely experienced equipment problems.
"As a result his main chute did not deploy and he did not deploy his reserve chute," said Frank Hinshaw, Skydive Hawaii President.
The Federal Aviation Administration was on scene investigating and confirmed neither of his chutes deployed.
Hinshaw says Owens was certified to jump solo and had packed his own parachute. But he may have made a critical error, that cost him hs life.
"He made problems in packing procedure and didn't close his main chute properly," said Hinshaw.
Owens learned to jump at Dillingham in August of last year and already had 88 jumps under his belt.
He leaves behind a wife and child.
"Hopefully we'll learn from this tragedy and help prevent others," said Hinshaw.
Skydive Hawaii canceled all operations for the rest of the day.
