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Published date03 April 2022
Publication titleHerald on Sunday
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this but your daughter has been killed in an accident,” they announced

His world fell away.

Sarah-Jane Bayram — his only child — had been living her best life in Auckland for the past six years after taking a job with the University of Auckland.

The adventure-loving trained architect was ticking off a bucket list of new challenges — tackling the nation’s great walks, climbing mountains, and throwing herself out of planes.

The single 43-year-old had arrived here with few contacts. But with her outgoing nature, quirky sense of humour, piercings and brightly coloured hair, she quickly made lasting friendships — many of them from the close-knit skydiving community.

She would regularly travel out to Parakai in Auckland’s beautiful northwest, ascend above the earth then tumble towards the ground at well over 200km/h — the rugged west coast and churning Tasman Sea the breathtaking backdrop.

She told her dad it felt like she was floating.

“I think she enjoyed it,” Andrew tells the Herald on Sunday. “The freedom and views from above. The photos she shared were very impressive.”

At the time of her death last month, Bayram had notched up nearly 300 jumps and was planning to tackle a New Zealand women’s skydiving formation record attempt at Taupō next week.

Due to COVID restrictions, Andrew had not seen Bayram in two years. He watched an Auckland funeral service for his beloved daughter over the internet last week. A pre-written message from him was read aloud.

Andrew says he was “shell-shocked” to learn of Bayram’s death and only now starting to process it.

“Each day blends into another. It’s more difficult now than it was two weeks ago. The more you think about it the more you remember.”

He knows little more about the accident other than what’s been reported by media and says he will await the inevitable investigation reports to learn exactly how his vibrant, loyal and fun-loving daughter met her end.

“I suppose it could have been avoided, no doubt. We’ll just have to wait for things to take their course.”

Bayram has been cremated. Half her ashes are to be scattered among her favourite New Zealand walking tracks. The other half will be interred in her grandfather’s Commonwealth war grave.

It was “surreal” dealing with the tragedy from the far side of the world.

Asked if he had worried about her high-risk hobby, Andrew says: “As worried in as much as you can be when you worry about your child, but not overly worried because I knew she was very safety conscious.

“I assumed because of the danger involved it’s an assumed risk sport and safety is taken very seriously.”

He remembers Bayram for her spirit and courage.

“She lived life to the full and beyond. There was none of this ‘what if’.”

Andrew is aware of people’s courageous efforts to rescue his daughter after she tumbled into the ocean during the fading light of a picturesque Muriwai sunset.

“That was very good of them. We can’t really praise them enough.”

He is now learning to adjust to a life without his daughter.

“Time will help things. There’s a lot of paperwork to sort out and then it’s just a matter of moving on and hoping that things ease. But you’ll never forget.

“It happened and unfortunately she just happened to be there at that time.”

A Herald on Sunday investigation has revealed that Bayram is one of three solo skydivers to lose their lives in accidents in the last three years.

Two of the fatalities involved Skydive Auckland jumps. And all three involved recent graduates from sister company the New Zealand Skydiving School. Both companies are based at the same Parakai facility and share the same four directors.

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