Lachlan Muddle dies in Jervis Bay parachute collision
Special Air Service Regiment warrant officer lachlan muddle died Monday evening after a mid-air collision with another paratrooper during parachuting training at Jervis Bay airfield. Maj Gen Garth Gould said the soldiers were moving toward the drop zone in low-light conditions when they hit each other a few hundred feet above the ground.
The Australian Defence Force has paused all personnel parachuting operations nationwide while investigators examine the incident. The second soldier, a sergeant from the ADF parachute school, survived with minor injuries and gave immediate first aid before recovering without hospital treatment.
Jervis Bay airfield
Gould told reporters Tuesday that both paratroopers were wearing night-vision goggles. He said, “What we know of the incident suggests that both paratroopers collided several hundred feet above the ground while they were manoeuvring towards the drop zone.” He added, “After the collision, both soldiers fell from height.”
The soldiers were taking part in a six-week block of advanced military freefall training and were jumping from a civilian commercial aircraft leased by the military. Muddle had joined the Army in 1994 and had served with Special Operations Command since 2007, mainly within the SASR.
ADF parachute pause
The pause follows another fatal parachute incident involving ADF soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, who died early in 2024 after being injured in March 2024 at the RAAF airbase at Richmond. Parachute training was stopped for two months after that death, and investigations were launched by the NSW coroner and the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force.
Mark Butler described Monday’s death as a “very deep tragedy.” Muddle was 50 years old and had several thousand jumps and extensive operational experience as a special forces sniper and military freefall parachutist.
Training under review
The Jervis Bay death is the second training death in two years, after another army soldier died and two others were injured in October 2025 during a training accident in north Queensland. The ADF’s current pause leaves parachuting operations across the force on hold while the review continues.
For soldiers in the training pipeline, the immediate effect is simple: parachuting activity has stopped nationwide, and the next decision sits with the investigators reviewing what happened in the air above Jervis Bay.
