The 68-year-old New Jersey man was making his 5122th jump from an airplane. After 50 years of doing this, it would be his last.
“I wish this was all some sort of bad dream, but unfortunately, it’s not,” his son, Jonathan Zimmerli, said shortly after his death this week.
Peter Zimmerli of Waretown had recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first jump in August 1968. He holds multiple world records as well, having won the Skydiving World Championships in 1971 and 1975 while representing the Swiss national skydiving team, his son said.
He also just celebrated his 37th wedding anniversary with Jonathan’s mother, Roz.
Now the experienced parachutist is gone, having died during a skydiving attempt this week, according to his family and authorities.
“My father, my pops, my guiding light has left all of us way, way too soon,” his son said.
Zimmerli may have had a medical emergency during a practice jump that led to his fatal landing Tuesday near the Perris Valley Airport in California, according to his family.
Jonathan said his father died because of hemoperricardium, or blood in the sac that surrounds the heart, possibly related to a heart attack that occurred days earlier.
The emergency apparently happened after Peter opened his chute while participating in an eight-person formation jump just before 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to his son.
“Words cannot express the emptiness I feel at this moment,” Jonathan said. “I cannot begin to imagine not being able to ever speak to him again to get his amazing and always rational advice on all things life.”
Zimmerli was pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Riverside, Calif. Coroner’s Office.
Zimmerli appears in a list of 125 skydivers in a 2015 formation jump photo posted by the Australian Parachute Federation.
An investigation is ongoing.
This is a developing story. Patch will have more information as it comes in.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Zimmerli. Peter is on the right.