This is the second case of death of an Indian Air Force personel in Agra , in recent months, due to the parachute not opening after jumping.
The latest accident happened on Saturday (5 April 2025) at around 9:30 am when Ram Kumar Tiwari jumped from a helicopter which was flying at an altitude of approximately 1000 feet from the ground. This was not at all a complicated task for an expert like Ram Kumar Tiwari, who has been serving in the Indian Air Force for 23 years and has done countless such jumps while training many paratroopers. This was a routine for him. But this time the jump proved to be the last.
In fact, after jumping from the helicopter, the parachute of warrant officer Ram Kumar Tiwari did not open. It is said that there was some technical fault in the parachute due to which it could not open on time. Ram Kumar fell straight to the ground from such a height.
The badly injured para instructor Ram Kumar Tiwari was immediately taken to the military hospital for treatment but he could not be saved. Assistant Commissioner Police Vinayak Bhosale said, “The police received the information about the death of Ram Kumar Tiwari from the military hospital at around 12 noon.”
Warrant officer Ram Kumar Tiwari, a resident of a village in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, was living with his family in Agra. SHO Viresh Pal Giri, in-charge officer of Sadar Bazar police station of Agra, said that Mr. Tiwari lived in the Air Force residential quarters with his wife and two sons. He joined the Indian Air Force in 2002.
The Indian Air Force said in a post on its social media handle X, “A Para Jump Instructor from the IAF’s Akash Ganga Skydiving Team succumbed to injuries sustained during a Demo Drop at Agra today. The IAF deeply mourns the loss, and extends heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family, standing firmly with them in this hour of grief.”
It takes extraordinary courage to become a skydiving instructor, he has to dive and perform diving demonstrations hundreds of times with his trainees. In such a situation, the entire safety depends on the packing and performance of the parachute.
A heartfelt tribute from Rakshak News to one such instructor, Warrant Officer Ram Kumar Tiwari of the Indian Air Force, who earned permanent wings and flew away from this world forever.
Death of Junior Warrant Officer GS Manjunath:
This is the second accident of the parachute not opening on time during a jump from the sky to the ground in the Indian Air Force para training in Agra. Earlier this year on February 8th , Junior Warrant Officer GS Manju Nath (36 yrs) of Karnataka died during routine para jumping practice in Malpura dropping zone.
GS Manjunath had jumped from an Indian Air Force AN-32 aircraft from a height of about 7000 feet during training. But neither his main parachute nor the reserve parachute opened in time. GS Manjunath fell in the field of Sutedi village in Agra and died.
