Skydiver's paralysis, not chute, led to death

KALISPELL, Mont. - Investigators say a quadriplegic man who died in a weekend skydiving accident in northwestern Montana died as a result of his paralysis and not because of equipment failure, the Missoulian reported.

Zack Fogle, 27, of Kingston, Wash., died Saturday afternoon when his parachute did not open during a jump at the 44th annual Lost Prairie Boogie, a 10-day skydiving event near Marion that typically draws hundreds of participants.

Fogle had limited mobility in his extremities after being struck by a car in high school, but had a custom-built parachute with handles that were located where he could operate them with his hands, Undersheriff Jordan White said. Fogle, who had with five years of skydiving experience, had completed more than 125 jumps and had participated in the Lost Prairie Boogie before.

"There was some initial speculation that it might have been suicide, but someone who is as passionate about skydiving as he was would not have failed to open his chute on the first jump," White told the Missoulian.

The accident happened on Fogle's first jump at this year's event.

"He jumped with someone who assisted him out of the airplane," White said.

Fogle apparently was on his back while he was falling and was unable to get turned around and facing down so he could deploy his chute, White said.

"One of the bigger struggles he had was being able to roll over onto his stomach if he lost control during a freefall," White said. "You have to be in control in order to release the chute, and based on what we learned, the last person who saw him said he was on his back, struggling and appeared out of control. He landed on his back, so our assessment is that he was attempting to right himself and was never successful in doing that."

Fogle didn't deploy his primary or emergency parachutes, and an emergency deployment mechanism that would have released his emergency chute as a fail-safe had not been properly activated prior to the jump.

"His equipment was determined to be current in inspections and service and was in proper working order," Curry said in a news release.

White said he learned that Fogle also had a custom motorcycle built to accommodate his disability.

It is the second consecutive year that a skydiver has died during the Lost Prairie Boogie. Last July, Garl "Mike" Newby, 57, of Colorado Springs, Colo., died after his main parachute became entangled with another man's chute. Officials said he removed his main chute but did not have enough time to deploy his reserve chute.