One skydiver was killed and another injured after they collided midair during a team jump in Washington state, officials said.
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Experienced parachutists Randy Hubbs and Nicole Klein were part of an 11-person jump on Sunday in Ritzville, some 180 miles east of Seattle, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Tuesday.
“At approximately 1,000 feet above the ground, and with neither jumper aware of the other’s position, the two parachutes came into contact,” West Plains Skydiving said in a press release reported by NBC News local affiliate KHQ-TV.
The impact left Hubbs, a real-estate broker, “incapacitated” and “no longer in control of his parachute canopy,” the sheriff’s office said. Skydiving staff saw him 500 feet up, unresponsive with his head and arms down and drifting north away from the drop zone, it added.
Hubbs was found dead at the scene and Klein suffered “injuries requiring additional treatment at a medical facility,” it said in a previous statement.
“The Skydive West Plains community is mourning the loss of a friend who has been part of the drop zone family for nearly a decade,” the company said. “The team’s thoughts are also with the second jumper and her family as she recovers.”
Before the incident on Sunday, Hubbs had completed more than 800 jumps and Klein more than 900, West Plains Skydiving said according to KHQ. Weather was not a contributing factor in the collision, police said. They said the investigation remains ongoing.
On social media, friends paid tribute to Hubbs.
“I’m heartbroken,” wrote a person named Sam Ormson in a public post. “But every now and then I have to shake my head, sigh, and smile, because somehow a skydiving exit feels exactly like Randy. I miss you my friend.”
