Interest in skydiving rises as it becomes safer

SALT LAKE CITY - Skydiving offers adrenaline rushes, breathtaking scenery and the unparalleled feeling of flight, but it also comes with risks.

Although the sport is 50 percent safer than it was four decades ago, 21 people died nationally last year jumping from airplanes.

Earlier this month, first-time skydiving student Claudette Porter, 75, and veteran instructor James Fonnesbeck, 60, were killed near Mesquite, Nev., when their parachutes malfunctioned during a tandem jump.

Mesquite Police officer Jeffrey Smith said that according to witnesses the main canopy failed to open and "did not break away" as it was designed to do. When Fonnesbeck opened his reserve chute, the two canopies became entangled, did not fully inflate and failed to slow the jumpers sufficiently before they struck the ground. Mesquite Police have turned the investigation, which is ongoing, over to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Brad Jessey, owner of Skydive Mesquite, was on the ground as the Oct. 9 accident unfolded. He said he hasn't jumped since the accident -- not out of trepidation, but out of respect for the victims' families and the temporary closure of his business.

Phil Liu, a tandem skydive instructor and manager at Skydive Utah in Tooele, Utah, said the recent fatalities haven't deterred him from his passion, but rather remind him of the risks associated with jumping.

"It is part of the sport and all of us recognize that," said Liu, who has completed more than 6,800 jumps in his career. "As a community we try to learn from these incidents so we don't repeat them."

Liu said those who have done thousands of jumps -- Fonnesbeck had made nearly 11,000 -- can sometimes become complacent and less vigilant. But even to the most experienced, accidents still happen.

"More than anything else, (the accident) is a call to brush up on emergency procedures," Liu said. "The best thing to do is always be prepared for the worst outcome."

The United States Parachute Association says the sport has become much safer over the years.

In the 1970s, annual fatalities associated with skydiving peaked with an average of 42, according to the USPA.

But in 2010, the USPA recorded 21 fatalities nationally resulting from about 3 million jumps. That works out to be 0.7 deaths per 100,000 jumps.

Meanwhile, interest in the sport has skyrocketed.

In the early 1960s, USPA records indicate there were 3,300 members nationwide. The association now boasts more than 30,000 members.

USPA Executive Director Ed Scott attributes the decline in fatalities to better equipment, training, and technology.

Scott said when he started jumping in 1975 they used very basic military parachutes.

"The equipment from that point to today has just evolved dramatically," Scott said, adding that modern parachutes have a backup auto-activation device that senses altitude. Scott said if the sensor finds the diver is falling too fast, the reserve chute will deploy automatically.

Scott says the USPA collects reports from the FAA on every parachuting accident and then disseminates the information to the skydiving community.

Scott said equipment problems are rare and the majority of fatal accidents can be attributed to "skydiver error."

There are strict FAA guidelines for packing a parachute, which is like an intricate origami-folding project, taking several minutes to complete.

Porter lived in Las Vegas and had always wanted to go skydiving. Fonnesbeck was one of the skydivers who dressed like Elvis Presley and jumped from an airplane over Las Vegas in the 1992 film "Honeymoon in Vegas."