What started as a bucket-list thrill ride over the Mojave has now landed in a Nevada courtroom. Mitchell Deakin, the British tourist who survived a near-fatal tandem skydive last September, has filed a civil lawsuit in Clark County claiming his jump - and what followed - were the result of negligence by his instructor and the operation that ran the dive. The complaint says the incident left him with major injuries and accuses the company and individual instructors of failures that went beyond the ordinary risks of the sport, shifting the story from last year’s accident reports into a legal fight over responsibility and safety practices.
Who was named in the suit
According to court papers reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Deakin, identified in the complaint as a resident of Lancashire, England, named tandem instructors Mauro Ravanelli and Jairon Arcos Ponce, along with owner Brenton Buckner, as defendants. The complaint, the paper reports, alleges Buckner was negligent in training and supervising parachute packers and instructors and lists several companies tied to Buckner’s Skydive Las Vegas operations. The filing also alleges that either Ravanelli or Arcos Ponce personally packed the parachute used on the jump that failed.
The fall and what investigators said
Police and witness accounts say the tandem pair jumped from roughly 11,000 feet on Sept. 17, 2025, near Jean Airport and went into an uncontrollable spin after a backup parachute interfered with the main canopy, sending both parachutists into the desert at high speed. Those details were summarized in international coverage of the police report and the early hospital transports. The Independent noted the police description of the malfunction and reported that federal and local authorities opened inquiries.
Injuries and recovery
Online fundraiser posts and hospital updates say Deakin suffered a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, a perforated lung and a lacerated kidney, and that he required surgery and rehabilitation after the crash. Those medical details and the GoFundMe campaign were reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which also covered his release from University Medical Center as he continued recovery.
What the complaint alleges and the legal context
The complaint centers on alleged packing errors, equipment preparation and failures in training and supervision that the suit says turned an ordinary tandem jump into a life-threatening event. That theory, and the question of whether signed waivers will shield an operator, sits inside a wider safety conversation: the National Transportation Safety Board has previously identified recurrent oversight, maintenance and training gaps in parachute operations, findings plaintiffs often point to when challenging operator practices. National Transportation Safety Board research on parachute operations highlights systemic safety weaknesses regulators and courts consider when evaluating operator responsibility.
Where this leaves the case
Deakin’s lawsuit is the latest legal development after the Sept. 17, 2025 incident that first pushed the parachute malfunction near Las Vegas into local headlines. That earlier coverage outlined the crash and the FAA-level inquiries; the new complaint now puts the matter squarely before a Nevada civil court. The case is pending in Clark County and is expected to move through the standard filing and response cycle that determines whether the claims survive initial challenges, with further developments likely to play out in both court records and the local skydiving community.
