An experienced skydiver died Saturday when officials said her emergency parachute didn’t deploy.
Authorities said Jasmine Black, 48, of Locust Grove, had more than 160 jumps under her belt when she took to the sky once more over Skydive Atlanta at the Thomaston-Upson County Airport, roughly 60 miles south of downtown Atlanta.
By 4:22 p.m., Upson sheriff’s deputies were called to the tarmac.
“Early investigation indicates that, while approaching the landing zone, Black’s parachute struck the parachute of another skydiver at low altitude and she ‘cut away’ her main parachute and attempted to deploy her emergency chute,” Sheriff Dan Kilgore said in a statement.
The emergency parachute failed to deploy because of Black’s low altitude, he said. Deputies found her body on the tarmac.
No other details about the incident have been released by officials.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to Skydive Atlanta for comment. A representative for the company acknowledged the request but did not immediately provide a statement, noting they are “still in the process of collecting information and putting it all together.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting with the investigation, Kilgore said.
In 2020, two other skydivers were killed at the same Skydive Atlanta site.
Jeanna Renee Triplicata, 18, and her instructor, Nick Esposito, 35, died when their primary parachute didn’t open properly and they went into a spin, Kilgore said that July 12. An attempt to deploy the emergency parachute was unsuccessful because of the “extremely low altitude” that did not allow it to fully open, he said.
Esposito was also an experienced skydiver and was conducting a tandem jump with Triplicata. The two were attached to a parachute rig when they fell to their deaths in a field on Rocky Bottom Road near the airport.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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