Pete Luter III, a 68-year-old Roanoke Rapids skydiver and owner of Countryside Chimney Sweeps, died after having a problem with his parachute in Florida.

Luter died in Zephyrhills, Florida, according to the tampabay.com website.

According to a news release from Skydive City, where Luter made the jump, he had a problem with his main parachute spinning after it opened. “He was either unconscious or incapacitated in some way we expect, but do not know for sure. There was no reaction to the malfunction until about 300 feet when he cutaway from his main parachute, but there was not enough altitude for his reserve parachute to deploy in time.  It appears he was killed instantly.”

The website tbo.com reported Anna Parker was watching a group of skydivers descending toward earth today shortly after 1 p.m. While 10 to 15 of them seemed to be floating peacefully, one had drifted far from the others.

"It seemed like he was circling out of control," she said. "Basically, the chute collapsed well before the diver hit the ground. I knew something bad was happening. He looked like he was unconscious as he was coming down."

David "T.K." Hayes, general manager at Skydive City, said Luter was an experienced skydiver. "At about 300 feet he did a cutaway, but that's not enough altitude to deploy" a reserve parachute,

Hayes said, adding that Luter ikely "died instantly" when he hit the ground.

Hayes said the man was participating in a jump with a dozen or so other skydivers.

Despite the man's death, skydiving continued through the day.

Don Carrington, a longtime friend of Luter, said Luter was a “key player” in his learning to jump while Carrington was a junior at East Carolina University.

“He has been a good friend,” Carrington told rrspin.com this afternoon. “He jumped with us for the 100th anniversary of flight. I still have a note from him saying it was the best jump in my life.”

Carrington also recalled when Luter asked him to photograph Frank Buckles, the last surviving World War I veteran. “I didn’t jump that day. I spent two days following Frank Buckles around.”