One of two skydivers killed in midair collision had made 17,000 jumps

 

A veteran skydiver was among two killed during a midair collision above Perris.

When rescue personnel arrived at Perris Valley Skydiving on Thursday afternoon, bystanders were providing CPR to the two victims, the Riverside County Fire Department said.

The two were pronounced dead at the scene at 4 p.m. The accident is under investigation.

The victims apparently fell 200-300 feet to their deaths.

The National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and local authorities are investigating.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported that one of the victims was Patrick McGowan, a veteran Perris skydiving instructor. "He had over 17,000 jumps," Scott Smith, Western regional director of the U.S. Parachute Assn., told the paper.

"He's one of our better instructors, more experienced, and just a great person," Smith told KTLA.

The second victim was identified as Chris Stasky.

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Upper photo: Perris Valley Skydiving. Credit: KTLA

Lower photo: Chris Stasky and Patrick McGowan. Credit: KTLA

Comments

[Billy]

Where in the article does it say anything about a mid-air collision?
That's why I clicked on it, but there's zero explanation.
They fell 200-300 feet to their deaths? What does that mean? Did their parachutes fail at that height? Presumably they jumped from higher than that.
Some info would be nice if you are going to post a story with that headline...

[Amalgamate]

risk that goes with skydiving

[imnotrich]

Tragic.

Most jumps don't end this way but...where's the public outcry about banning skydiving?

I mean, if the government's going to outlaw hand wipes - you'd think skydiving is much more dangerous.

[Willie]

DUH, Billy, if you click on the video, you'll get answers to all of your questions and more.....

[PyotrLip]

Answering the comment from "Billy" -- a statement about a midair collision does appear in the first paragraph.

Surely the two men must have socked into each other and thereby disabled at least one parachute -- probably tangled the lines between a chute and its user, folding up the chute, 'way too late to correct.

Also possibly the tangled lines wrapped around the other guy's lines. More details likely will come out later.

Yes it's a known risk but too sad anyway.

[PyotrLip]

Also, the video talks about the parachutes being "entangled".

[Hans Gruber]

I read where their parachutes touched or tangled and deflated.

[sailbyme]

I'm guessing it was a perfectly good airplane.

[marvin williams]

I thought mid-air collisions were the result of two aircrafts not sky divers. This articles says nothing about the collision. Go figure!

[EdwoodCA]

I'm no expert, but how hard is this to understand? Since when is a mid-air collision only between airplanes? Any collision above ground/sea level is a mid-air collision. Bird vs plane, helicopter vs plane, Hindenburg vs whatever sparked it's fire... just kidding.

And when it says they fell 200-300 feet, that's the point from when their chutes tangled/deflated, not when they jumped. Geez.

That said, yes, the article is lacking in detail since they just slapped it together to get it published online asap to feed peoples' need for instant news. It's an unfortunate byproduct that proof reading, editing, investigating and verification suffer.

Another article elsewhere shows a photo of a paraglider, not a skydiver. Geez.

[Zizibug]

Pat was one of my instructors about 10 years ago. He was one of the most amazing, experienced skydivers I ever met. He was very patient with me even when I was a beginner, showing me all the advanced techniques. He loved flying the high performance parachute. He was doing what he loved.