Two licensed, experienced skydivers were killed after colliding in midair at Skydive Elsinore in Southern California, CBS News reported.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said deputies were called late Friday morning about an air emergency. Both skydivers were taken to a hospital with critical injuries.
The Riverside County coroner’s office identified them as 29-year-old Levi Pimentel of Aurora, Illinois, and 56-year-old Georgia Jean of Box Elder, South Dakota.
According to Skydive Elsinore, the free fall and the opening of the parachutes were normal. As the two were getting ready to land, they collided about 150 feet above the ground.
“The collision caused their parachutes to become entangled, and both sustained critical injuries when they reached the ground,” the company said in a statement. It said there was no evidence of equipment malfunction.
The two women were visiting from out of town to take part in an organized skydiving event, the company said. Skydive Elsinore, which says it is the longest-running skydiving operation in North America, is about an hour from both San Diego and Los Angeles.
Sources: CBS News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Credit: Paolo Bovo, Army / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
