SAN JOSE — Authorities have suspended their search for Tyler Nii, a tennis coach at Archbishop Mitty High School who died in a recent skydiving accident in southern New Zealand.
Nii, 27, and his tandem skydiving instructor plunged into icy-cold Lake Wakatipu, near Queenstown, on Jan. 10.
Tandem skydivers are strapped together, but in emergency landings, it is standard practice for them to separate from one another, Mark Horning, safety director of the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association, told the Otago Daily Times following the accident.
The instructor was rescued by three local people who happened to hear a radioed SOS call and rushed out in a boat, but Nii had sunk into the lake, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The search for Nii was hampered by poor conditions and the depth of the lake, Otago Lakes police district area commander Inspector Olaf Jensen told Stuff, an online publication.
“Suspending the search is not the outcome we wanted,” Jensen said. “We were obviously wanting to return Tyler to his family and it’s very disappointing that this couldn’t be done.”
Nii’s parents, who flew to New Zealand to retrieve their son’s body, are slated to return home later this week.
Nii joined Mitty in 2013 as the girls tennis coach, then became the varsity boys tennis coach and also coached with Player Capital, which runs youth tennis programs. He also was a member of the U.S. Tennis Association’s Northern California board.
