Two skydivers collide in freak midair SoCal horror

New York Post ^ | Nov. 6, 2026 | Erica Andrews

[nickcarraway]

Two skydivers plunged to their deaths after colliding midair in a horrifying Southern California accident Friday.

The pair were rushed to a hospital after the reported midair collision in Lake Elsinore but neither survived, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the California Post. Deputies responded to the 20000 block of Cereal Street at 11:47 a.m. after receiving a report of an air emergency.

“Upon arrival, deputies located two skydivers on the ground receiving medical aid,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Deirdre Vickers. “Both subjects were transported to a local hospital in critical condition, where they were later pronounced deceased.”

SNIP

Both skydivers suffered major traumatic injuries and were taken by ground ambulance for further care, the fire department told the Post. No other injuries were reported. Emergency response vehicles gathered in a grassy field with mountains in the background. Deputies responded to the 20000 block of Cereal Street at 11:47 a.m. after receiving a report of an air emergency. –

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TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: skydivers

[Getready]

Collided 50 feet off the ground? Must have gotten tangled up and landed on their heads.

[pfflier]

At 50 feet AGL sounds like they were intentionally aiming for each other, head on and with their chutes fully deployed, to get those injuries.

[fireman15]

Before I got into ultralight and general aviation, I was an avid hang glider pilot. We had a person who we considered very old who was about my current age who was involved in several minor collisions when not paying attention in heavily used ridge lift locations. Fortunately, this took place in areas with cliffs and terrain that dropped off dramatically, so each time there was room for the pilots to recover.

In a sport which is regulated by an organization that has basically no control over participants... it is almost impossible to get rid of people who are hazards to others. The FAA has far more oversight over sky diving than it does over hang-gliding or paragliding or even flying ultralights.

The early high-performance double surface hang gliders that I used in my youth could be very touchy. If you tried to flair for landing when you had too much airspeed, you could easily end up 50ft in the air, and trying to hold the nose of the hang glider up, all the way to the ground for a very inglorious “landing”. When the conditions were not very good or unpredictable a lot of pilots sustained fairly serious injuries to their lower extremities or backs.

Fortunately, modern hang gliders have a much lower stall speed, so this type of mishap is much rarer these days. But in my day if you let the nose drop during a botched landing it could easily result in a serious life threatening head or neck injury.

[Inyo-Mono]

Writer Erica Andrews needs to go back to journalism school, her writing is atrocious.

[Falconspeed]

Early hang gliders were totally courageous. The two skydivers who collided need to remember that there is a lot of room in the sky.

[fireman15]

Early hang gliders were totally courageous.

For me it was never about thrill seeking; it was all about a very joyful form of flight. I have a bit of what seems to be a genetic disorder that causes me not to be as respectful of heights than I should be. For anyone who cares about hang glider history: The earliest hang gliders go back even before Lilienthal and Chanute. Many of these early gliders were death traps mostly because of their stall characteristics that typically were not well understood.

But I assume what you are talking about are the Rogallo wings that created the boom in hang gliding in the 1970s. I still have one that we used to two behind a boat to get it airborne. These were far superior in most ways to the parasails that tourist still get rides on in popular vacation spots.

It takes much less power to get it airborne and the pilot has control over it, you can use them with very long ropes or cable. You can also even release them from the boat and land on the beach or take advantage of ridge lift. You can also fly them around sitting in the seat without removing your water skies and just land back in the water. Ours has floats that keeps it from sinking.

Rogollo wings are very easy to fly, but they have little to no recognizable signs that indicate to the pilot that they are about to stall. If you fly to slow or raise your angle of attack too high in a turn or just to clear an obstacle the wing can stall. The stall can easily result in a serious crash. In more modern gliders an impending stall is much easier to recognize, and the stalls characteristics tend to be less abrupt.

In 1974 Eric Wills who was one of the members of the family which formed Wills Wing was killed flying a Rogallo style hang glider as a result of this characteristic. 3 years later his brother Bob Wills was killed when a helicopter came to close to the glider he was flying while filming a Jeep commercial. Wills Wing was the company which was the largest Hang Glider manufacturer for many decades and still is although the original company was dissolved and a new one was started up again in Mexico.

Because Rogallos have a lower stall speed and top speed than the later early generation double surface gliders they were considered much easier to learn to fly, and they do not have the tendency to swoop 50ft into the air when you attempt to land them with a few too many knots of airspeed. The other thing that makes them easier to fly is that most use a swing set style seat instead of a prone harness, which means that you do not have to transition from one position to another.

I would love to go hang gliding again, in my opinion they provide the purest form of flight as compared to a bird. We still have four hang gliders. Unfortunately, my wife is not wild about the idea.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I used to own a Phoenix 8 glider back in early 1990s. Great boat glider. But a buddy crashed it in Lake Cumberland and bent the spar. Along with breaking a femur.

I tried to get replacement parts from the Bennetts but they wouldn’t sell them. They said there are now better kites out there with slower, more stable stall speeds I could buy from them.

So it was never repaired and I never glided again. The kite became yard art and I got my private pilot license. I like being wrapped in aluminum now.

[ncalburt]

sad story

[BB62]

“The two skydivers who collided need to remember that there is a lot of room in the sky.”

Since they’re dead, I don’t think they’ll be remembering much...

[DannyTN]

Thibedeaux decided to go skydiving.
He was plummelting towards the ground when he saw Boudreau coming towards him im the opposite direction.
So he hollared out, “Do you know anything about parachutes?”
Boudreau hollered back, “No, Do you know bow to light a gas stove?”

[The Duke]

When I was visiting a Dr. several years ago one of the many questions he asked me was if I had a fear of heights. I replied "yes" ... but after thinking back to my tree-climbing boyhood for a few second I added ... "Adult onset".

We both got a chuckle out of that.

Last year as I was about to break for a week vacation, one of my coworkers in a remote meeting asked me what I had planned for my vaction. I replied ... "You know those videos of people with wingsuits base jumping from mountains?" ... after a few seconds I added ... "I'm going to watch about 100 of those videos."

[Night Hides Not]

It was 50 years ago this month that I was at Airborne School at Fort Benning. We concluded our training during the third week with 5 jumps. I don't recall those jumps as being "fun": we exited the aircraft at 1200 feet, falling 400 feet before our chutes fully deployed.

The remainder of the trip was spent looking around my parachute, as I was joined by 50 soldiers on that pass...had to make sure that no one was nearing me, nor was I running into another jumper. That time passed quickly, though it felt agonizingly slow.

One of the highlights of my life was walking off the drop zone after my fifth jump. That experience sated my desire for any future parachutist activity.

The training was superb/world class, and I left Fort Benning in the best shape of my life, thanks to be dropped for pushups at least 50 times a day by the instructors. It was well known that officers were singled out for extra attention by the Black Hats. It was no big deal, didn't take it personally, it was part of the game.

[Jeff Chandler]

In 1976 I worked for the man who brought hang gliding to Arizona. At that time the fatality rate for people who took up hang gliding was 5%.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me...’

Oh. Wait. ;)

[Joe 6-pack]

"It was well known that officers were singled out for extra attention by the Black Hats"

Rest assured they had no love for cadets either :-)

I went through in 1988. At that time there were some older black hats with combat patches from Vietnam and some younger ones who had been in Grenada. I don't know about now, but back then the morning runs were segregated between men/women. One of the black hats taunted the women and asked if any wanted to run with the men to see if they could keep up. There was a female lieutenant who said she would and Sgt Airborne promised he'd smoke her. We all found out later she had run cross country and track for UCLA and was a competitive marathoner.

Sgt Airborne didn't fare so well that morning.

[Night Hides Not]

Great story, thanks for sharing. There were a few women in my Airborne class, and they received preferential treatment.

I went through ROTC at Gonzaga, and we had a few women in our small (100 cadet) program. I don't recall any of them seeking special treatment.

I was lucky, all 3 of my Platoon Sergeants had at least one tour in Vietnam. From 77-early 79, I led 3 of the 4 platoons in my battery: two Chaparral platoons and one towed Vulcan platoon. I learned a lot from those 3 PSG's as well as our First Sergeant, who was an infantry 1SG for 3 companies in Nam.

Oddly enough, he was the first senior NCO to ever ask me for advice...lol. At the start of our battery level ARTEP, he comes up to me and says, "LT what in the hell am I supposed to do? I don't know a damn thing about this ADA bull$hit!" I laughed and said, "Top, you know how to run a CP don't you? That's all you have to do, and let me take care of the ADA BS."

I had to wear two hats: Maintenance Officer and acting XO. I don't think I slept during those 3 days, thanks to a CO that never should have left battalion staff, and a platoon leader who couldn't meet his mission times.

Thanks to my first PSG, he got me pulled out of that battery to battalion HQ in his new job as S-3 NCOIC. I spent my last two years in Germany as the Battalion S-4.