LODI, CALIFORNIA — A morning skydive turned fatal after malfunctioning equipment led to the tragic deaths of two men.
CBS San Francisco reports that an 18-year-old boy was skydiving for the first time at the Lodi Parachute Center on Saturday. He was accompanied by family and several other people.
The boy, identified as Tyler Turner of Los Banos, California, did a tandem jump with a veteran instructor who had reportedly performed about 700 previous jumps previously. After the two jumped from a plane 13,000 feet up, the parachute failed to eject, sending the pair plummeting to the ground.
Both men died. Their bodies were found in a vineyard south of the landing zone at around 10 a.m.
Despite the deadly accident, other skydivers went through with their jumps and the center remained open the rest of the day.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
The owner of the dive center maintains that they didn’t do anything wrong, reports USA Today.
