Chris Rantall's family say they're blessed their dad survived a skydiving accident

Returned serviceman Chris Rantall was injured but lucky to survive the jump at Torquay on Friday which tragically claimed the life of instructor Arron Toepfer.

Mr Rantall's daughter Raya was with her dad at the time and said it was a miracle he had survived.

"We jumped out of the plane together," she said. "I jumped out of the plane first, Dad came behind me, he was probably only 20 to 30 seconds behind me jumping out of the plane."

She said she and her instructor feared the worst when the emergency parachute for her father and Mr Toepfer wouldn't open.

"When me and my instructor landed we both thought they were dead because there was no movement but then five seconds after we landed we saw movement from them," she said.

"Arron would have been trained to land in a sort of way that would have been on the bottom but in a time like that how many people actually would?

"We just think it was such a heroic act that he let his training come into play.

"He really directed it down because it was out of control. The emergency parachute just wasn't filling up with air, I just think it was amazing even how he steered it down as well as he did.

"The way Arron landed and for Dad to just have these injuries to his left-hand side. It was a heroic act for sure, there's no doubt about it.

"He will always be a hero in all of our family's eyes and we'll always be praying for his family. We just really feel for them.

"He was such a beautiful man and we know they're suffering a huge loss. We have our dad still here and it's thanks to what their son did and we'll forever be grateful."

Ms Rantall said thoughts were also with the skydiving company which had lost a colleague and dear friend. "We're blessed to still have our dad with us," she said.

Ms Rantall said her dad was flown to The Alfred Hospital with injuries including a dislocated hip, which also had fractures, internal bleeding to his spleen and left kidney and some broken ribs.

"Dad is recovering," she said.

"Everything is getting better. He started to walk a little bit with the frame the other night. There has just been so many improvements, it has been miracle after miracle."

She said there had been enormous support from local churches, veterans and the community.

"It's so encouraging knowing that so many people care about our dad as much as we do," she said.