Sacramento,CA : Veteran California skydiver crashes, dies in 13,000-foot wingsuit jump on may, Wednesday 24th 2017

A veteran skydiver fell to his death outside a skydiving facility in northern California Wednesday after his parachute failed to properly deploy.

Matthew Ciancio, 42, was undertaking a 13,000-foot jump with several other skydivers at the Lodi Parachute Center in Acampo, Calif., officials from the Federal Aviation Administration told the Sacramento Bee. The group was flying in formation in wingsuits, specialized jumpsuits with wings under the arms and between the legs.

When Ciancio tried to release his main parachute at about 4,000 feet, he started spinning uncontrollably, according to Bill Dause, a spokesman for the Lodi Parachute Center. As Ciancio plummeted toward the ground, Dause said, he tried to cast off the parachute at “an extremely low altitude.”

The emergency parachute didn’t deploy, and Ciancio crashed in a vineyard about a mile north of the Lodi Airport.

“I watched him dangle under his canopy unresponsive, not trying to fight it and just tumbled down and down,” Gwillym Hewetson, one of Ciancio’s skydiving partners, told KCRA 3.

Heweston said Ciancio was skilled in wingsuit base jumping, an extreme form of skydiving that involves free-falling over long distances in the flying squirrel-like suits. He said Ciancio may have experienced a “hard open,” a whiplash effect that happens when a parachute deploys at a high speed.

“It can happen to any skydiver depending on how they pack their canopy,” he told KCRA 3. “You’re going 120 miles an hour and for that to be stopped in an instant gives your body a huge shock.”

The FAA said it was investigating Ciancio’s death. The agency has not determined what caused the crash, according to the Associated Press.

Dause, the Lodi Parachute Center’s spokesman, said Ciancio was visiting the center and had completed several jumps in the past week. He didn’t follow “proper emergency procedure” during his fatal jump, Dause told the Sacramento Bee.

“He waited too long to get rid of the bad parachute,” he said.

“We feel bad about the family and the people (the skydivers) leave behind,” Dause told KCRA 3. “But other than furnishing the aircraft for them to use, we didn’t pack the parachute, we didn’t train them, we didn’t give them the equipment, in this case. Does it make it right? No. Do we feel bad? Of course we feel bad.”


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Veteran California skydiver crashes, dies in 13,000-foot wingsuit jump