Jessica Edgeington, 33, was a professional skydiver with more than 6,500 jumps, according to Flight-1, a skydiving school that offers canopy piloting instruction in DeLand, Fla. where the accident occurred.
Flight-1’s website listed Edgeington as an instructor and carried a brief description of her professional background.
“I have been skydiving since February 2000,” Edgeington said on the site. “I worked in the skydiving industry shooting tandem videos for several years, which is how I initially got interested in canopy piloting. I began competing in canopy piloting in 2006 and that quickly became my focus in the sport. I joined the PD Factory Team in January 2009 and have been competing with the team as well as teaching Flight-1 canopy courses since that time.
Police said accident was likely caused by the mid-air collision of two parachute canopies. It was unclear if Edgeington was working as instructor or practicing with her team when the accident occurred.
Edgeington attended Kennesaw State University and Montana State University, according to her profile on the website of the PD Factory Team, which comprises elite skydivers.
The website said she was a professional Flight-1 instructor, PD Factory Team pilot, skydiving photographer and videographer. Her hobbies included snowboarding, yoga, reading, hiking, camping, travel and “playing my ukulele.”
The PD Factory team described its mission on its website as working together to achieve their dream of expanding the “possibilities beyond the known boundaries of human flight.”
It said the team of “highly experienced canopy pilots has set out to bring high-speed precision canopy flight to the masses, in a way never before seen”
The website noted that by using the latest high-performance parachutes “team pilots can perform high-G spiraling maneuvers capable of achieving speeds in excess of 80 mph, then pull out of the dive into level flight mere inches above the surface for distances of several hundred feet, and still deliver a soft, stand-up landing at the end of it all.”
Skydive DeLand did not return calls seeking information, the newspaper reported.
It is the second death to occur at the facility this year, the newspaper reported. In January, a Navy SEAL, William “Blake” Marston of New Hampshire, died after an accident during a training exercise.
http://www.ajc.com
DELAND — A skydiver known for her abilities in a high-speed subset of the sport known as “swooping” was killed after her parachute’s canopy hit another canopy midair, authorities said Thursday.
Jessica Edgeington, 33, of Villa Rica, Georgia, died Wednesday afternoon after flying out of Skydive DeLand, said DeLand police Lt. Bruce Morehouse. Detectives were still investigating.
Edgeington made more than 6,000 jumps and competed in canopy piloting, whose participants are known as “swoopers.” Competitors typically jump from a plane at 5,000 feet and then must maneuver the parachute, sometimes with twists and turns, to skim the surface of a pond between a series of buoys. Then they must perform either a 75-degree turn, a precision landing inside a 2-by-2-meter area, or a distance glide.
The swoopers reach speeds of up to 90 miles an hour as they descend. It’s all designed to test the parachutist’s ability to control the chute — also known as a canopy — and how accurately they can land. The sport canopy parachutes are more rectangular and look different from a rounded-top parachute.
“It’s not necessarily scary to jump out of the plane anymore,” Edgeington said in May 2014, when she was interviewed by The Associated Press while competing in Florida for a spot on the U.S. Parachute Team.
“I get competition nerves when I’m at something like this. So that’s probably the most nerve wracking thing, is getting ready to compete. Trying to perform and do your best. Hopefully not mess up.”
Story and video: http://tbo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment