People on the ground watched as he landed in a grass field 400 yards from the drop zone on a former Second World War airfield. The police, who declined to identify the man, were asking yesterday whether he had imitated the death of the skydiver Stephen Hilder in a 13,000ft plunge in 2003.

A British Parachute Association board of inquiry will work with detectives to establish what led the 27-year-old Londoner to his death. He was said to be behaving normally before he jumped from a Nomad light aircraft that had taken off from Old Buckenham airfield, near Attleborough, Norfolk, on Saturday afternoon.

But as soon as his parachute opened automatically he removed and threw away his helmet, which had a built-in radio to speak to his instructor on the ground. He then used a pair of gardening secateurs or scissors to cut the tough cords on his parachute, and died from multiple injuries on landing.

The man had paid £175 to take a beginner’s course at the UK Parachute Services training centre, based at the airfield. He learnt how to leave an aircraft, control a parachute and land safely after seven hours of training on Saturday, April 15.

Jason Thompson, the chief instructor, said that the man was not able to jump two weeks ago because the weather had worsened at the end of his training. On Saturday he returned to the centre for his first solo jump in perfect conditions.

Mr Thompson said: “There was nothing to indicate he had any problems at all. I didn’t have any part in his training, but apparently he was just a normal sort of student.

“If we had been unhappy with his mental state we would not have allowed him to go up. He exited at 3,500ft and was using a static line so his parachute opened automatically within three seconds.

“His parachute deployed normally and people on the ground only realised something was wrong when he took off his helmet and discarded it. “He then cut the lines on his parachute. It is unclear what height he was at, but his parachute would have deployed at about 3,200ft. People on the ground were aware of the situation as he was doing it, but there was nothing they could do.”

The man was using the modern, square ram-air parachute, which even first-time jumpers can steer safely to land on a target area. Mr Thompson said that the man had arrived for his training alone, but had his lessons with other students.

A police spokesman said: “At this time the police are not treating his death as suspicious. The coroner will begin an investigation in due course.”

The apparent suicide has similarities to the death of Hilder, 20, at Hibaldstow airfield, North Lincolnshire.

At first police believed that his parachute had been sabotaged on the ground and they began a murder inquiry. But officers concluded that he had cut the straps himself after fibres from his parachute were found on scissors in his car.

Hilder was an officer cadet at the Royal Military College of Science, at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.

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