Skydiver dies in accident near Lodi Parachute Center

Sacramento Bee (CA)

May 25--One person died Wednesday in a parachute accident near the Lodi Parachute Center in Acampo, according to the Woodbridge Fire District.

Steve Butler, chief of the fire district, said emergency medical crews responded about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday to a vineyard off Jahant Road.

Butler said he had no additional details on the incident. He said San Joaquin County sheriff's investigators were at the scene, though there was no activity there early Wednesday evening.

Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said in an email that a skydiver who was using a wingsuit landed in a vineyard just north of Lodi Airport. The FAA will investigate the incident.

According to a wingsuit-flying website, a wingsuit is a specialized jumpsuit with two arm wings and a leg wing. A skydiver using a wingsuit deploys a parachute toward the end of a descent.

Three people died last year in accidents near the Lodi Parachute Center. One suffered a parachute malfunction in February 2016, while an instructor and student died during a tandem jump in August.

A tightly packed skydiving plane carrying 18 people also landed upside down in an Acampo vineyard last May, resulting in harrowing footage of the accident.

While there is no official count of fatalities, a review of news stories shows that at least 18 people have now died in Lodi-related parachute accidents since 1981.

Cathy Locke: 916-321-5287, @lockecathy

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Watch as a plane full of skydivers flips over and crashes and the skydivers escape the plane. Sebastian Alvarez was on the Cessna 208, wearing a helmet camera and capturing dramatic moments as the plane crashed in a Lodi vineyard, clipping a grapevine wire and flipping upside down on Thursday, May 12, 2016. Only the pilot was injured, suffering a bloody nose. The FAA said the plane experienced engine trouble just after takeoff from the Parachute Center skydiving school at the Lodi Airport in San Joaquin County. courtesy Sebastian Alvarez

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