Skydiver falls to his death

A man died Wednesday afternoon during a skydiving jump at the annual Skydive Lost Prairie Boogie about 30 miles west of Kalispell.

The man’s name and address have not yet been released by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. The accident occurred at 4:24 p.m.

Fred Sand, event director, said a problem occurred within the last 30 seconds of a jump by an experienced skydiver.

The diver had jumped from an elevation of about 13,000 feet from an airplane with about 20 people and a pilot on board.

As is the case with all skydives, the jumper was in a freefall for about a minute, which dropped him to an elevation of between 2,500 and 3,000 feet, Sand said. That’s typically when a skydiver tries to deploy his or her parachute, as this man did. However, some problem occurred and the parachute failed.

“There are miracles,” Sand said. But in this case it appeared the man died instantly. An emergency medical technician is at the skydiving event 12 hours a day and responded to the scene immediately. The Sheriff’s Office and other emergency responders were also sent to the scene.

The man had just registered on Wednesday afternoon. The jump was either his first or second of the day, Sand said, but that wasn’t clear on Wednesday night.

The man was an experienced jumper and had been at Lost Prairie several times, Sand said.

Volunteer registrar Gail Shay Linne said the man who died “gave all the other jumpers the gift of training.”

Linne volunteers at the event every year in memory of her son, Joel Atkinson, who died in a skydiving plane crash at Lost Prairie in 2007. She acknowledged that her family participates in extreme sports and understands there is some degree of danger involved in that lifestyle. All skydivers do, she said.

“We always say a skydiver who is killed during a jump got one final big jump,” Linne said. “It’s what we believe.”

She expressed her condolences to the man’s family and friends “from his family at Lost Prairie.”

The accident caused a short delay in jumping, but the event resumed and other jumps occurred as planned Wednesday.

This year marks the 43rd annual Boogie at Lost Prairie.

It’s a nationally recognized event and is expected to draw between 250 and 300 jumpers. By Wednesday evening, 172 participants had registered. The event began July 24 and ends Aug. 2.

Jumpers come from throughout the western United States, Canada and several other countries. The local event ranks in the top five for skydivers, Sand said. Many participants, including the man who died, come back every year.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration have been notified of the accident and may arrive in the area to conduct an investigation.