The day after her breakup, skilled skydiver ‘chooses' not to open her parachute 10,000 feet above ground
According to a Mirror report, Jade's death was initially assumed to be a tragic accident, but the SkyHigh Skydiving, the skydiving company she was associated with, said they suspected her death to have been 'a deliberate act'.
Later, it became known that Jade, 32, had broken up with her boyfriend Ben Goodfellow, 26, the day before her fatal skydive.
Jade had been dating Ben, a fellow skydiving enthusiast, for nearly eight months after her split from her ex-husband. According to MailOnline, they had been living together in a property near the airfield, rented specifically for parachutists.
According to a Mirror report, Jade, a keen skydiver who had jumped around 80 times this year, deliberately failed to open her parachute as she plunged at speeds of more than 120mph.
The fatal skydive was marked 'non-suspicious' after the police discovered a note disclosing her intentions.
Jade's friend also confirmed that the incident 'wasn't a skydiving accident'. Her friend said that they believe Jade intended to take her life.
'She skydived with someone else, broke off and turned onto her back and impacted. She chose not to open her parachute, and she landed on her back,' they said
The friend also shared that the night before Jade's death, Ben had ended their relationship. He reportedly went to work the following day, during which time the tragedy occurred.
Police and emergency services were called to a nearby farm, where she landed, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. One person is believed to have witnessed the horror.
Ben Goodfellow is a Nissan technician and the lead singer and guitarist for the Sunderland-based indie band Post Rome, whose music has been featured on BBC Introducing.
Following the incident, the band cancelled a scheduled performance, citing 'unforeseen circumstances.'
Jade's friend described their bond as extremely close and said Jade was 'completely devastated' by the breakup, despite the fact that it was not the first time the couple had hit a rough patch.
'They were inseparable. They did everything together and didn't really interact much with others. They often went skydiving as a pair,' the friend said, adding that Jade and Ben had been living together since Christmas and had been dating for a few months before that.
'Jade had ended things with Ben on previous occasions, but Saturday was the first time he ended it with her. Ben is a quiet person - he's completely devastated by what's happened,' the friend added.
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These include Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala and the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where numbers rose between 2012 and 2019, according to the same Lok Sabha report. 'Wherever animal birth control rules are implemented, you won't have issues of stray dogs attacking humans. There has to be a consistent sterilisation programme that breaks the whole pack code behaviour,' says Animal Welfare Board of India, the central government's apex body on animal welfare, has written to all states asking them to comply with rules by having an active sterilisation programme in place. 'When dogs are unsterilised, fights between them may occur, and rarely, a human may get caught in the middle. An effective sterilisation programme helps prevent such situations. Since territories are not left vacant, new dogs cannot enter. Over time, as the dogs die natural deaths, their numbers dwindle. 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More awareness is needed to tell people that it's best for the future of stray dogs that they are neutered,' says Dr Umesh Bhaskar, a veterinarian with Navodaya, the agency neutering dogs in Bhopal municipal Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, state that after neutering, the dogs must be released in the same place from where they were taken. But some municipalities have faced threats from societies when it was time to return the dogs. 'We have to fight to collect the dogs and sometimes we have to fight to release them because not everyone wants them back. The country is divided over street dogs and this love-hate divide often gets in the way of our work,' says a Delhi municipality some cities, civic bodies have realised that working with feeders leads to better results. Mumbai is one such example where feeders help capture the dogs and ensure that all dogs under their care are vaccinated and sterilised. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in turn, has set aside Rs 4 crore for its sterilisation budget in 2022-2023 and feeders say the process has always been smooth.'Everyone sees stray dogs as a nuisance and wants them to be taken away from their premises. Coexistence is important; dogs are a part of our ecosystem. The population of stray dogs needs to be brought to a figure that is well accepted by the human population of the region, to pre-empt any conflict. If stray dogs live in healthy and sanitary conditions and don't suffer from ailments and illnesses, the conflict and problems are reduced,' says Dr Kalimpasha Pathan, general manager at the BMC's veterinary health department. As of September this year, the municipal body has sterilised 386,347 dogs and is planning to start a programme that is expected to see 100,000 rabies vaccinations in a around 20,000 deaths annually, India accounts for 36 per cent of the world's rabies deaths, according to the World Health Organization. And dog bites cause almost all cases of rabies in the country. However, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare, India has recorded a drop of over 60 per cent in the number of rabies deaths year on year from 2011 to 2018 (except 2017). Now, a mandatory shot is given to all stray dogs that are brought in for with straysThe data tabled by the Union minister for fisheries and animal husbandry in the Lok Sabha this year shows stray dog bites across India have reduced to 1.7 million in 2021 from 7.3 million in 2019. However, 1.45 million cases have already been reported from January 1 to July 22, 2022, indicating that the sharp drop in 2021 might have been due to Covid restrictions and fewer people out on the streets. But even at 1.45 million bites over six months, the figure this year may still be less than the 7.3 million cases in 2019. And sterilisation doesn't rule out all chances of a dog say biting or attacking is a dog's defence mechanism and while a sterilised dog won't attack unprovoked, it will defend itself if faced with a threat. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, defines acts that amount to cruelty to animals and makes them punishable. These include 'beating, kicking, killing, mutilating or otherwise torturing any animal so as to cause them unnecessary pain or suffering'. 'Mischief by killing or maiming' an animal also violates Sections 428 and 429 of the Indian Penal of the ways to reduce people's antagonism towards street dogs is to focus on what they do for us, say experts. Besides valuable companionship to many, dogs also help keep spaces safe at night. They are also our biological cleansers of trash, rats and other example of coexistence is Sunil Kuttam and the 45-odd dogs he looks after in Delhi's Kalkaji Extension area. All the dogs are vaccinated and the respective RWAs have their certificates. Kuttam and his team help introduce new maids, drivers and couriers to the dogs to help build confidence and trust between both canine and human. If there is an aggressive dog, medicines to reduce anxiety and aggression are mixed into its is also important for people to know that the number of stray dog bites is not as much as believed and neither are strays becoming more aggressive. According to General Hospital, Ernakulam, Kerala, companion dogs, not strays, were the cause of 75.6 per cent of the bite cases in a six-month period in 2015. 'Eating meat and being fed do not make a dog aggressive. It is an absolute myth. On the contrary, a well-fed dog is likely to be more trusting and less aggressive,' says BMC is working towards countering misapprehensions through education programmes in municipal schools with plans to introduce them in private schools. 'Touching a dog that you don't know, picking up puppies with a mother around, throwing a stone, touching the animal while it is eating and pulling its tail should be avoided. If a dog is chasing, don't run. You need to make children aware. Often, societies say that dogs may bite, so we shouldn't have them. I try to make them aware on how not to get bitten,' says developed countries, street dog populations are controlled not just through sterilisation programmes but also by providing homeless animals shelters and parks. The Noida Authority is taking some lessons from the US and is planning to build 18 shelter homes for dogs in the city with the help of RWAs. Run by the RWAs, they will provide a place for homeless dogs to stay and be treated for illness. There is also a dog park being built in Sector is important that we find a balance between dog lovers and those who are yet to be comfortable with them. Those with dog phobias say their fears should also be respected. 'I went through a horrible situation with a gang of dogs as a child. I cannot be near dogs without feeling very sick. I am not saying kill street dogs but at least leave areas where a person can be without having to face them,' says 19-year-old Mumbai-based student Akshay experts say that this can be done if feeding is done in only one part of the society so that the dogs' area is confined to that space. Multiple feeders in the same society with multiple locations trains dogs to roam the entire society instead of a part of dogs are valuable to many, even as they are frightening to others. Sensitisation on the value of dogs and how to behave around them, sterilisation to control numbers and pack aggressiveness and feeding homeless dogs in planned public spaces can serve as the foundation of such a balance.—With Rahul Naronha, Rohit Parihar and Manish DixitSubscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsTune InMust Watch
