TikTok Influencer's First Skydive Ends in Tragedy

Tanya Pardazi, 21, died during jump outside Toronto last month
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2022 9:44 AM CDT

On Aug. 29, a statement from Skydive Toronto announced the death two days earlier of a 21-year-old skydiving student, citing "fatal injuries obtained from an emergency situation." It didn't identify the student, but now her name is out, and it's a fairly well-known one: Tanya Pardazi, a social media influencer with more than 113,000 followers on TikTok, reports NBC News, which notes this was Pardazi's first solo jump. The South Simcoe Police Service confirmed the death in the Ontario town of Innisfil in an Aug. 28 statement, noting the victim was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

In its statement, Skydiving Toronto noted the jumper was a "welcomed recent addition to the skydiving community" and that the student "released a quickly rotating main parachute at a low altitude without the time/altitude required for the reserve parachute to inflate." NBC notes that before their first solo jump, students have to take a safety course that includes "all of the fundamentals required to successfully complete your first skydive," such as "your equipment, how to exit the airplane, freefall body position (arch), canopy control, and emergency protocol." It also advertises that "weather permitting, you'll do your first skydive that afternoon!"

Access Hollywood notes that Pardazi's final TikTok post mentioned skydiving. Friends tell CTV News that Pardazi was a philosophy student at the University of Toronto who'd placed as a semifinalist for Miss Canada. "Tanya had an interest in anything that was new and adventurous," a childhood friend told the news outlet on Wednesday. "Life was too boring for her." Another friend called Pardazi "one of the bravest girls." The National Post reports that Pardazi is the fourth person to die while skydiving this summer in Canada. Skydive Toronto notes in its statement that it's cooperating with police in their investigation. (More TikTok stories.)

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