Memorable jump for 16 skydivers
THE skies above the Somerset region turned red as skydivers remembered Daniel Morcombe.
Taking part in the Dive for Daniel, a group of skydivers jumping from the Ramblers Skydiving in Toogoolawah remembered the tragic loss of Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted and murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 2003.
The divers strapped red ribbons to themselves for the dive last week, joining hundreds of people across the country who wore red to remember Daniel.
Sixteen divers wore the ribbons when jumping in a freefall formation on the Day for Daniel last week.
The dive was one of the final events of the week-long Post-Equinox Boogie, a skydiving and music festival run by Ramblers, which attracted hundreds of divers from across the world to the Somerset region.
Along with the Dive for Daniel, the skydiving festival featured 12 men and one woman, all aged over 60, who made Australia's first sequential formation skydive by members of the group Skydivers Over Sixty (SOS).
The group jumped from 14,000 feet about midday on their second attempt for the day.
The skydive was organised by Toogoolawah resident Alan White, who runs a jumpsuit manufacturing business and included the Ramblers' chief instructor, David McEvoy.
The one woman of the group was 60-year-old Lea Rickwood, a retired wine representative.
She was also the youngest of the participants, and with fewest jumps of the group - just over 500.
The oldest participant was 74-year-old Gordon Turner, a veteran with 1500 jumps over the past 29 years.
