ACAMPO — The light blue silks of a parachute peeked up through some grass Sunday as authorities secured another tragic scene at the Skydive Lodi Parachute Center.
In Acampo to jump, Brent Huntington, from Alaska, said he only met the latest fallen skydiver during this weekend’s trip. He told FOX40 the woman who died had been involved in the extreme sport for decades.
The @FAANews also says the woman was using her own equipment while jumping at the Lodi Parachute Center. Her name and age have not yet been released by authorities. One fellow jumper who witnessed the accident tells @FOX40 she had 40 years in the sport. pic.twitter.com/xgqHsH07Oc
— Sonseeahray Tonsall (@tonsalltv) October 15, 2018
The Federal Aviation Administration says their investigation into the woman’s death was not focused on the wind and they were instead looking at the jumper’s parachute. Investigators say it was her own equipment that failed to properly deploy. Usually, FAA probes into such situations are limited to if the chute was packed properly and by the appropriate person.
Fellow jumpers say the woman killed this afternoon at the Lodi parachute center had decades of experience in the sky. @FOX40 pic.twitter.com/xqNlgZ6kO1
— Sonseeahray Tonsall (@tonsalltv) October 14, 2018
Huntington, who goes to the Lodi Parachute Center at least twice a year, said it is his favorite place to jump in the world, despite its deadly history.
Including Sunday’s fatality, nineteen people have died there since the facility opened in the early 1980s, with six of them between 2016 and 2018.
After trouble in 2016, 20 center instructors were suspended and it was determined 120 more needed more training as the U.S. Parachute Association investigated.
Federal agents raided the center earlier this year but the FBI has not released any further details about that operation.
Huntington said he cared for the woman who died in the field as part of the special camaraderie all skydivers share.
“We all care about it. We do it for a reason,” Huntington told FOX40.
Stay with FOX40 for more updates.
