Two licensed skydivers died on Friday after a midair collision at about 150 feet above the ground over Lake Elsinore in Southern California, an incident that left their parachutes entangled and both jumpers critically injured. The collision happened around noon during an organized dive at Skydive Elsinore, a facility roughly 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
The victims were identified as Georgia Jean, 56, of Box Elder, South Dakota, and Levi Pimentel, 29, of Aurora, Illinois. Jean had completed more than 1,700 jumps, a record that placed her among the most experienced members of the sport. Pimentel was the lead skydiving instructor at iFLY Naperville, an indoor flight facility in Illinois, and had spent his working life training others in the discipline. Both suffered traumatic injuries and were pronounced dead at a hospital after being transported by ambulance.
The Riverside County Fire Department responded to the scene and transported both skydivers by ambulance. According to the available reporting, freefall and parachute deployment appeared normal for both jumpers before the collision. It was the collision itself, and the resulting entanglement of their canopies, that left neither jumper able to land safely. The sequence unfolded at a low altitude, leaving little time for recovery once the parachutes became tangled.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, a standard step when a fatal accident involves aircraft operations and airspace used for skydiving. Skydive Elsinore issued a statement on the deaths. The notes available for this report do not detail the wording of that statement beyond its acknowledgment of the fatalities.
Investigators have not determined what caused the midair collision, and the reason the two jumpers' paths converged remains unclear. A second report indicates the two women had known each other before the jump, a detail that has not been tied to the cause of the collision. Whether the pair had planned to fly together or came into contact during the organized dive has not been established in the available information.
The deaths are a reminder of how quickly a routine jump can turn dangerous when two people occupy the same airspace at speed. Skydiving depends on jumpers maintaining separation during freefall and on the timing of canopy deployment, and a collision at low altitude leaves almost no margin for correction. Until the FAA completes its review, the circumstances of the Lake Elsinore collision will remain a matter of open questions rather than settled findings.