'Died doing what she loved:' Champion Australian skydiver Mel Porter dies in US

A champion Australian skydiver has been killed in the US while testing out a new method for the sport, with her mother saying she "died doing what she loved".

Melissa Porter, from Port Kennedy in Perth, died after the accident at the Skydive Spaceland Houston facility in Texas on June 24.

She was trying a high-risk manoeuvre called swooping when she had a hard landing and fell into water.

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Her mother Vonnie Porter said she was told to call the hospital in America before she was given the shock news.

"I said, 'I'm ringing about Mel Porter.' I said, 'She's been in a skydiving accident'," she told 9News.

"He said, 'She is dead.'

"She's my baby and she's not coming home."

Porter said her daughter "loved" the sport.

"That was her happy place. She'll forever be in the sky roaming the world now," she said.

Porter, who was also a skydiving instructor, helped set a skydiving record in Queensland earlier this year.

She was one of 23 women who jumped at Skydive Ramblers in Toogoolawah on May 6, completing the "2-point 23 way", an Australian women's total-break sequential record.

Local police yesterday confirmed friends had identified the woman as Porter.

The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office will work to determine Porter's cause of death.

Friends are now planning a tribute skydive to honour her.

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The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed it is "providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian woman who died in the United States".

"We send our deepest condolences to the woman's family," a DFAT spokesperson added.

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