By Julianne McShane —
NBC News
A 21-year-old Canadian college student and TikTok influencer fell into a void while skydiving in Toronto last weekend, according to reports.
Tanya Pardazi died Aug. 27 while making her first jump with the Skydive Toronto school in Innisfil, Ontario, where she had taken a course, a friend told CTV News Toronto.
Pardazi was studying philosophy at the University of Toronto, according to the cited media, and had a TikTok account with more than 100,000 followers.
21-year-old influencer Tanya Pardazi.@philosatea via TikTok
The skydiving center requires students to complete a course on “all the fundamentals necessary to successfully complete your first parachute jump”—including “equipment, how to get out of the plane, body position in free fall (bow), the deck control and emergency protocol”—before making his first jump from 4,000 feet, according to the website.
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The center confirmed the death of a 21-year-old student in a Facebook statement, but did not identify Pardazi by name.
A representative for Skydive Toronto told NBC News in an email that "out of respect for the family, we will not be providing more details than our statement has already included."
The Facebook statement said the skydiver
"released a rapidly rotating main parachute at low altitude without the time/altitude required for the reserve parachute to inflate."
"He was a recent addition to the skydiving community and will be missed among the new friends and colleagues at Skydive Toronto Inc," the statement added.
“The Skydive Toronto Inc team has been deeply affected by this accident as it has perfected its student training program for over 50 years,” he adds.
The facility is working with local police — who confirmed the fatal incident in a statement last Sunday — as they investigate the incident, according to the statement.
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Friends of Pardazi told CTV News Toronto that she had reached the semi-finals of a Miss Canada pageant and "had an interest in anything new and adventurous," according to her childhood friend Melody Ozgoli.
“He was really living every second to the fullest
,” Ozgoli told CTV News Toronto, “this is the biggest shock to us.
It is very difficult to process.
It's been a couple of days, but we still can't believe it."
The University of Toronto cheerleading squad paid tribute to Pardazi in an Instagram post.
"Forever a part of our team and in our hearts, Tanya Pardazi was one in a million," the caption read.