Two skydivers were killed Saturday during a tandem jump in northern California, authorities said.
Their bodies were found in a Lodi-area vineyard after an emergency call came into the San Joaquin Sheriffs’ Office around 10 a.m. indicating that a parachute had failed to open, Sgt. Brandon Riley said.
Authorities were working to identify the bodies, but Riley said it appears the victims, both males, were in their 20s. One was an instructor, he said.
They had jumped from the Parachute Center, a popular skydiving school in the state’s Central Valley whose website declares it “one of the largest and oldest drop zones in the United States,” launched in 1964.
The website offers an introductory tandem jump with an instructor for $100, from 13,000 feet.
The Parachute Center stayed in business for the rest of the day Saturday, even after news of the jumpers’ deaths, CBS Sacramento affiliate KOVR reported.
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The center has been in the news before. In May, a small plane carrying 17 skydivers took off from the Parachute Center and landed upside-down after clipping a pickup. The worst injuries were minor cuts and scrapes.
And in February, the Lodi News-Sentinel reported that a solo skydiver had died after a parachute malfunction at the center.
A man answering the phone Saturday at the Parachute Center said he was busy and did not know if two men had died. Parachute Center owner Bill Dause declined comment to the Sacramento Bee.
An exact cause will be determined by the Federal Aviation Administration, Riley said.
