Inspector Olaf Jensen, of Otago Lake Central Police, said the operation was complex, given the depth of the lake.
NZONE director Anthony Ritter spoke to media in Queenstown yesterday about the crash-landing, which happened during one of his company's skydiving operations.
Ritter dismissed as "purely speculative" a parachute malfunction as the potential cause of the crash-landing and said it was too early to determine what caused the fatal accident.
NZONE staff were assisting police and consular officials to try to contact the man's next of kin overseas.
Ritter extended the company's deepest sympathies to the man's family and friends.
"We're all devastated with yesterday's events."
The man had been travelling alone.
NZONE had shut down its operations in Queenstown temporarily and was co-operating with the police and other investigators, including the Transport Accident Investigation Commission.
Another skydiving branch it operated at Wanaka was closed today out of respect but would continue tomorrow.
He said the company would also undertake its own internal review of what happened, adding that staff had been offered counselling.
It was the first fatal incident for NZONE in 27 years he said.
But it is the second accident in 12 months involving the company.
A tandem jump last January ended in a crash-landing with an instructor and trainee instructor suffering serious injuries.
And in 2015, a skydiving cameraman working for the company ended up in Dunedin Hospital with serious injuries after a jump went wrong.
NZONE Skydive business development manager Derek Melnick told the Otago Daily Times in September 2015 that a cameraman accompanying a group of customers on a skydive about 1pm suffered multiple injuries after a parachute ''malfunction'' caused him to land heavily.
He was skydiving solo and no customers were involved in the incident, Melnick said.
''He is one of our senior crew members, with a number of years' experience."
The company's operations were suspended for a period of time.
