Fallen skydiver a veteran of 125 jumps
A 27-year-old quadriplegic man was identified as the victim of Saturday's fatal skydiving accident near Marion.
Zach Fogle of Kingston, Wash., died when his parachute failed to open following a jump during the Lost Prairie Boogie, according to a news release from Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry.
Fogle was a licensed skydiver with approximately five years of experience and more than 125 jumps.
He was a quadriplegic with limited mobility or function in his extremities, according to the press release.
Fogle had failed to manually deploy his primary or emergency parachutes after leaving the airplane, Curry said in the news release. "The investigation indicates that the emergency deployment mechanism that would have released Fogle's emergency parachute as a fail-safe mechanism had not been properly activated prior to the jump."
The incident was investigated by the Sheriff's Office, U.S. Parachute Association and Federal Aviation Administration.
Fogle was participating in the nationally recognized Lost Prairie Boogie that attracts hundreds of jumpers. The event wraps up Monday.
For more on this story, read Tuesday's Daily Inter Lake.