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The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the death of a skydiving instructor after he got detached from his client during a dive in Nashville, Tennessee.

Authorities report instructor Justin Fuller "appears to have dropped from the air without a parachute" during the dive on Saturday.

The instructor, 35 years old, seems to have detached from his client and a tandem rig, which connects the pair during a jump and contains the safety gear.

A law enforcement aircraft found the instructor's remains in a wooded area some time after. Local emergency crews utilized several ladders to reach the 46-year old student who lived through the descent after being stuck on a tree for hours with the emergency parachute.

Police said three other dives, which took place near a local airport, were successfully completed before the fatal fall. Aircraft from which they leaped also touched down without issue.

It is unclear how Mr Fuller, an experienced skydiver, got detached from the safety equipment.

A individual who helped rescue teams in the operation told a media outlet the student who officials saved mentioned "he was a first-time jumper, and it was going to be his last".

The instructor had recently written about his enthusiasm for teaching others how to skydive.

"Instructing individuals to skydive has always been in my opinion the most satisfying job at the drop zone," Mr Fuller wrote in an social media update in the summer.

"Watching them figure it out and start flying their bodies is consistently a touching moment. Sometimes though, it can get a little hectic up there when you release a student for their initial attempt."

During that period he posted photos of the wreckage a skydiving plane he was on noting the aircraft's motor had failed after take off. All 20 people aboard lived through the incident.