The father of a 23-year-old Georgia Tech student killed in a skydiving accident in Rockmart said Sunday that his son had hoped to make his 300th jump this past weekend.

Olen Reid Ashe Jr. said his namesake shared that goal with him and his wife, Lisa, during their visit with him about a week ago.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Patrick (ENLARGE)

Olen Reid Ashe III made his first skydive in 2004.

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Instead, Olen Reid Ashe III, who like his father went by his middle name "Reid," died making his 299th jump on Saturday.

"He was just good kid who enjoyed his friendships and his sports and was having a really good summer," said the elder Ashe, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Richmond-based Media General Inc.

The industrial engineering major died of massive internal and external injuries after his primary parachute malfunctioned during his third jump of the day, leaving him unable to deploy his emergency chute in time to slow his fall, said Polk County deputy coroner Tony Brazier. Ashe was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident happened about 4:30 p.m. at the private, 55-acre Skydive The Farm in Rockmart. Ashe had traveled there with three other friends.

Farm owner Hans Paulsen, who jumped with one of Ashe's friends, reported seeing the Tech student spinning out of control after releasing his primary chute. Ashe, he said, then detached the malfunctioning chute and released the reserve one less than 200 feet from the ground, not high enough to avoid crashing into the ground.

The group had leaped in tandem at 14,000 feet from a Twin Otter propeller plane.

Robert Tillman of Atlanta was one of the friends skydiving Saturday with Ashe, his longtime roommate. Tillman said Ashe was actually filming what was Tillman's first ever jump when Ashe's parachute malfunctioned.

"He jumped with me last," Tillman, 21, said late Sunday. "That was number 299."

While Ashe was directly below him filming the jump, Tillman said he didn't see much of what happened because his eyesight is poor and he wasn't wearing his eyeglasses.

The first sign of trouble, Tillman said, were the shouts from the tandem instructor for Ashe to "pull, pull, pull" to get him to pull his "cutaway," which releases the main parachute so that he could pull the reserve one.

Tillman feared it was bad when Ashe's reserve chute didn't go up.

"This was a matter of four seconds" he recalled, saying much of it is still a blur. "One, two, three, four. One after another."

Tillman, who's bound for medical school, said he was spared seeing his buddy's fatal impact with the ground.

"For once my poor eyesight came in handy," he said.

Ashe's death came more than a year after he lost a friend in a skydiving related tragedy, his parents said. Ashe took off a semester from Tech and eventually signed on with the Cherokee Outdoor YMCA to help work through his grief.

This summer and last he served a climbing instructor at its day camp and along the way discovered a love for working with children, family and friends said.

Ashe, who took up skydiving during his freshman year, was once a member of the Georgia Tech Sport Parachute Club. Club leaders did not respond to E-mails seeking comment on Ashe's death.

A coach and former president of the group on Sunday, however, sought to clarify Ashe's connection after earlier media reports initially identified him as a current member.

Ashe, said Ben Lee, had not been affiliated with the club for at least a year and half, wasn't using Tech-provided gear at the time of his death and didn't jump at the group's Thomaston drop zone.

As the Polk County police investigation continues, Ashe's relatives are also still trying to sort out what happened.

"We've talked to a friend who was there," the elder Ashe said. "He said it appeared to be tangled chute he was trying to cut away but didn't get it cut away in time."

In addition to his parents, Ashe leaves behind a younger brother, David.

Funeral arrangements are pending.