Skydiver from Mason dies in Middletown
Company co-owner says man deployed chute too late.
— A skydiver MIDDLETOWN from Mason died Sunday morning at Middletown Regional Airport when he deployed his chute too late, says the owner of a skydiving company.
John Hart II, co-owner of the Drop Zone, said the 47-year-old man’s identity has not been released pending notification of his family.
The Mason man, who Hart said had completed 95 previous skydiving jumps, died on impact at approximately 11 a.m.
Hart said the man deployed his chute under the recommended altitude limit of 3,500 feet.
“This wasn’t because of a problem. Maybe he lost altitude awareness. He did use his reserve chute but it deployed too late,” said Hart.
“It’s unfortunate but it was completely avoidable,” said Hart.
“This was not a reflection of a safety problem but a reflection on not making good decisions,” said Hart.
In 2014, 24 people were killed in skydiving accidents out of 3.2 million airplane jumps in the United States. That’s a death likelihood of about 8 in a million jumps, which is one of the lowest death rates in the sport’s history, according to the latest data from the U.S. Parachute Association.
The rate of people dying in skydiving accidents has declined steady since the 1970s, according to the association. The average number of yearly fatalities during the 1970s was 42, compared to 26 during the 2000s and 22 since 2010.
Over the past five years, the annual average continues its decline to 22.6, the association reported.
The skydiving business remained busy Sunday afternoon despite the accident.
“It’s business as usual but with a broken heart,” said Hart. “Our sport is skydiving. We’re not just teaching people how to bowl. Usually it’s not just one mistake — it’s multiple that leads to fatality but we don’t know what happened. Based on observation and initial review of equipment that some poor decisions were made and unfortunately it led to a fatal accident.”
In June 2015, a Start Skydiving student was injured after missing her target and landing on top of a two-story house, WCPO, our TV partner said. Hart said the woman was supposed to pull the parachute at 5,000 feet, but she didn’t respond on the radio.
Shortly after the 2015 incident, Hart told WCPO they teach about 200 people each weekend at the school. Anyone doing a jump without an instructor needs to take a sixhour course before even setting foot on a plane.
Officials from the Ohio Highway Patrol and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the death.