Posted on 09/26/2019 10:28:33 PM PDT by BenLurkin
28-year-old woman was parachuting with a group of seven people through the Lodi Parachute Center, which is just south of the crash site.
The woman's identity has not been released, but CHP says she was from Colombia.
Everyone else in her group landed safely.
...Just last October, 62-year-old Nena Lowry Mason from Dillon, Colorado, fell to her death after her main parachute malfunctioned. Her death marked the 19th fatality since the center opened in the early 1980s.
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 in 2018 and seized numerous records, including waivers and cash receipts, as well as extensive video footage, the Lodi News-Sentinel reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
At an uncontrolled airport all aircraft are expected to land and take off into the wind if possible. At any airport with a control tower they will typically be directed to take off and land into the wind. Don't take my word for it, go to any airport and observe for yourself! It's safer and more efficient.
Typical wind direction at that location is west. An approach from the east(over the hwy) heading into a west wind has nothing to do with skill or extra thrills. The altitude when crossing the highway depends on type of aircraft and local conditions. Poor pilots do exist it's just not the first conclusion I jump to when observing low flying aircraft over roadways.
Yesterday 10/26/19 at 14:00hrs Lodi time the winds were out of the west(according to a majority of the online weather instruments in the area upwind of the DZ in question). The safest direction for all aircraft(including parachutes) to land in those conditions puts them on final approach over the hwy. Wind speed prior to the fatality was ~10kts gusts to ~15kts. Right around the time of the fatality the winds picked up and gusts increased to ~25kts. An increase in wind speed is often the result of lower atmospheric pressure. Skydiving altimeters are just calibrated barometers that are set to zero at the intended landing location immediately prior to jump. If the conditions changed while the aircraft was climbing to altitude the deceased parachutists altimeter may have indicated they were higher than they were. Every training syllabus I have seen on the subject includes warnings about this and recommends never relying on just the instrument. It is not a mal-function of the instrument. Altitude awareness is mandatory in every form of aviation.
There are many farm fields around the airport to land at in case a parachutist is unable (for whatever reason) to make it to the intended landing area. The caveat that goes along with this is the fact that in an unpowered aircraft there comes a point in time where only one 'choice' remains.
I have never jumped in Lodi. I am not qualified to comment on their operation specifically.
THE FOLLOWING ARE expert OPINIONS NOT FACTS
The legal issues mentioned above(by others) are often the result of an injured or deceased jumpers family not accepting the fact that everyone reads and signs a waiver accepting responsibility for their own actions. The Modus Operandi(MO) parallels a dindu nuffins mama not accepting that decisions of others have consequences that may affect loved ones even if it was the loved ones decision.
Another legal possibility is local politics not accepting the fact that a federally funded airport must follow the rules that go along with the funding. Sometimes locals use LEO's to assist in forcing their intentions. This MO is typical of fifedoms.
The aircraft repo filmed there was scripted acting according to some of the local jumpers familiar with that aircraft. It may be 'based on fact' I don't know. My personal opinion is the producers just decided a jump plane is less expensive than a jet when renting tach time for that episode.
*** this just in ***
A very rare press conference by the owner of the DZ, Bill Dause.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGP6jhR8_Zw
The guy still has the spark and didn't take the bait. I give him props for being a rebel in the land of fruits and nuts. The media wants their pound of flesh and he is laughing because they showed up after the 3 letter acronyms. Someone(s) unleashed the kracken on this guy.
And he is STILL in business!!! LOL
I got me feathers numbered and me spestos jammies on.
My sister is already in the saddle on the moose.
The cheese is in hand so I can lead them into the shower to log on.
I can't find my beeber but I been stuuned before, no biggie.
All that remains is returning y'all to your regularly scheduled skydiver bashing thread.
;-)
Some of it can be set by the “culture” of the club. When I was jumping in the late 70’s it was at a club near Cleveland that had a great safety record. They didn’t tolerate any horseplay or nuttiness. Another club in Xenia (at the time)had a group called “The Herd” that was always trying to outdo each other. They had a higher accident rate.
Both are still in business.
People who jump out of planes, ski back country alpine, scale cliff faces, deep sea dive to depth for large fish, die at their own hands. And, hopefully do not take any rescuers or Good Samaritans with them.
Hermes37, I was never talking about the planes landing for thrills that way. . . I was referring to the parachutists, often when a group were landing easily in the landing area without doing a zoom in over the freeway to make a running landing. It was patently obvious that some of the came from the west, overshot the landing zone, then made a steep swooping spectacular curve over both lanes of the freeway to then come in low and swoop in from the East. Those were the ones I was referring to. Those approaches seemed to be totally unnecessary when the majority of the chutists were coming in fairly normally, or doing their swoop landings from other directions. Those were the "extra thrills" I was talking about which I thought were possibly going to get someone killed. I wondered why they didn’t move their landing target cross farther away from the freeway; as you pointed out there’s certainly plenty of available acreage there. My conclusion was having them landing so close to so much traffic was good advertising.
The few planes I saw which were too low, usually landed too close to the start of the runway as well. I figured they were just inexperienced. . . But just barely clearing speeding traffic? I’ve seen that twice. Taking off was never a problem. I had an acquaintance, one of our patients, who was killed out there in his first flight in an ultralight he just bought. I heard he took off, got about a hundred feet off the ground and stalled out, and didn’t have the experience or the air to recover. None of these issues are the fault of the airport.
Thanks for the atmospheric details of the latest fatality. Again, most likely not a fault of the operator. Skydiving is an inherently risky hobby. You jump and, you take your chances despite all the precautions you can reasonably take. Despite doing everything you can do, chaos can occur, and you can die. . . you’re jumping through a chaotic environment.
I too give the operator kudos for staying in business despite the anti-business environment prevalent in California and San Joaquin County and numerous lawsuits. If you guys pass by there, the cafe at the airport has some of the best hamburgers in the county.
I just watched the YouTube you linked. Bill Dause, the operator, was even surprised that the experienced jumper (155 jumps) had gone so far down wind.
I spoke to a friend who’s an experienced jumper and regularly jumps at Lodi. He said the jumpers are told they told they should avoid approaching landing over the freeway as there is too much danger if the wind changes unexpectedly. Apparently that’s what happened to this woman.
Dause said this woman was the only one of the fifteen jumpers in her group who even went down wind over the freeway, the fourteen others all landed in the landing area with no problems.
Did the giant bug break the windshield?
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