Vijayawada-Origin Man Dies in Skydiving Accident in US Weeks After Earning Licence
Teja’s family later moved to Hyderabad to support his education.
Hyderabad:A Vijayawada-origin man died in a skydiving accident in the United States after a sudden gust of wind reportedly interfered with his parachute during landing at a skydiving centre in Massachusetts.
The victim, 28-year-old Gaddam Mani Chandra Teja, had recently fulfilled his dream of becoming a licensed skydiver.
According to the Northwestern district attorney's office, the accident took place at around 4 pm on July 12 at Jumptown Skydiving in Orange, about 70 miles west of Boston. A preliminary investigation found that Teja fell from a height of around 30 feet when an unexpected gust of wind affected his parachute as he was landing.
Emergency responders rushed him to Athol Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. “The accident remains under investigation by the Massachusetts state police detective unit assigned to the Northwestern district attorney's office, the Massachusetts state police crime scene services section, the Orange police department, and the federal aviation administration,” the DA’s office wrote.
Originally from Vijayawada, Teja’s family later moved to Hyderabad to support his education. He went on to complete his Master's degree at Northeastern University in Massachusetts and had recently started working as a software developer at Fidelity Investments in Boston.
His death came just 9 days after he achieved a major milestone of earning his United States parachute association licence, which requires classroom training, multiple supervised jumps and a written examination. According to his friends, he had begun training in December 2025 and received his licence on June 26 this year.
In his final Facebook post, Teja described the training period as "some of the best days of my life". He thanked his instructors and fellow skydivers for supporting him throughout his journey and wrote that earning the licence was not the finish line but the beginning of a lifelong passion.
"Guess that just means I keep jumping, keep learning, until I fly like a bird in the sky," he wrote.
His family has launched a fundraising campaign to help cover funeral and related expenses. “Teja was an exceptionally bright, kind and hardworking young man with a passion for learning and embracing new challenges,” his cousin Naga Annam wrote on the GoFundMe page.
