DELAND, Fla. — DeLand police said 33-year-old Jessica Edgeington of Villa Rica, Georgia, died in the Wednesday afternoon accident.
The accident happened just after 4 p.m. at Skydive DeLand on Flightline Boulevard.
Investigators found Edgeington’s cutaway chute a few hundred yards from where she landed.
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The 911 calls after the accident were released Thursday.
Caller: “We have a jumper down at the moment.”
Dispatcher: “OK. That’s at 1600 Flightline Boulevard, correct?”
Caller: “Yep.”
Dispatcher: “Did the chute not open?”
Caller: “It was canopy collision.”
A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said its investigation into the accidents is limited to inspecting the parachute rigging.
No other information has been released about the accident.
Jumps continued at the facility Thursday. Officials at Skydive DeLand said it’s one of the busiest facilities in the country and there are 80,000 of the kind of jumps Edgeington did a year.
Wednesday’s accident marks the eighth skydiving-related death Channel 9 has reported about at the skydiving facility.
The most recent happened in January when a Navy SEAL was killed.
No one at the business wanted to comment but a patron was shocked to hear of the latest tragedy.
“I know that people who do it regularly here are a tight-knit bunch,” said nearby resident Chris Jacobs.
Jacobs lives about two miles away and can often see divers in the sky from his home.
“I don’t know what has happened and don’t know who all is impacted, but it can’t be good,” Jacobs said.
Trained to jump in the Marines, he said he enjoyed the sport and would come do it again, but only once in a while.
“Your risk adds up. I’ve done many things in life and I feel lucky so far. Just have to be careful,” he said.
Last year, there was a total of 18 skydiving deaths across the country, according to the FAA.
WFTV
