An experienced paratrooper has died after a mid-air collision during training above Jervis Bay airfield, Defence has announced.
The Special Air Service regiment warrant officer Lachlan Muddle, 50, died following the collision with another paratrooper after their parachutes had deployed.
The incident occurred a few hundred feet above the ground in low-light conditions on Monday evening, Maj Gen Garth Gould told reporters on Tuesday.
Gould said both paratroopers were highly experienced, with several thousand jumps between them. They were wearing night-vision goggles at the time.
“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,” Gould said. “After the collision, both soldiers fell from height.”
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailThe second soldier, a sergeant from the Australian Defence Force’s parachute school, survived the fall with minor injuries and provided immediate first aid to Muddle. He did not require hospitalisation and was recovering.
Muddle was “highly regarded within our community”, Gould said. He was a skilled professional who would be remembered for his sense of humour and deep commitment to serving the nation.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, said the point of the exercise had been to test advanced parachuting skills in low light.
“The defence force trains as it fights, and so there is necessary risk in defence force training,” Marles said. “What that means is that Lachlan Muddle’s sacrifice is as meaningful and significant as any of those on the battlefield.”
Marles said it appeared the two paratroopers’ parachutes had become tangled after the mid-air impact. The minister could not confirm the exact rate of descent or whether the two soldiers landed together.
He paid tribute to Muddle’s 30-year career, noting his five separate deployments, including service in Afghanistan. Marles described Muddle as an “expert sniper”.
He joined the army in 1994 and had served with Special Operations Command since 2007, primarily within the SAS. He was a highly qualified freefall parachutist with extensive operational experience.
Gould said the training was part of a six-week block of advanced freefall training. On Monday evening, the soldiers were jumping from a civilian commercial aircraft leased by the military.
In response to Muddle’s death, the ADF paused all personnel parachuting operations nationwide pending an investigation.
ADF soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of the former Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon, died in early 2024 during a parachute incident during a routine training activity in Sydney.
The 33-year-old was injured in March 2024 at the RAAF airbase at Richmond, about 50km north-west of Sydney’s CBD. He received first aid at the scene and was taken to Westmead hospital in a serious condition but later died from his injuries.
Three separate inquiries were launched after the death of Fitzgibbon: a Comcare inquiry led by the commonwealth’s WHS regulator; a New South Wales coronial inquiry; and an internal defence probe. The findings are yet to be released.
“Parts of them will be made available to the public,” Gould said on Tuesday.
Marles said: “In both that incident (2024) and this one, it is vital that investigations are as thorough as humanly possible so that every lesson is learned.
“While these are very different incidents, the importance of a thorough investigation remains the same.”
Another army soldier died and two others were injured in a vehicle rollover during training at the Townsville field training area in north Queensland in October 2025.
Two soldiers were also killed in a truck rollover south of Townsville in August 2021.
The defence department was charged in September 2023 with breaching federal work health and safety laws over the 2021 incident.
