Ken Oka, 62, was killed Saturday in a skydiving accident in Lake Elsinore, California
A preliminary investigation says a group of skydivers were trying a multiple person manoeuvr over Riverside County on Saturday when one of them became entangled in a parachute.
The man was unable to free himself and fell to the ground.
According to the Denver Post, police found him in the backyard of a Lake Elsinore home. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police identified the skydiver as Ken Oka of Mira Loma.
The newspaper says police and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting independent investigations.
According to friends he had accumulated 5000 jumps during his lifetime. He had even been skydiving twice before his death on Saturday.
Oka’s girlfriend Lynn Collins tearfully spoke to KCAL-TV and said that he once told her, ‘I want to do this [until] the day I die.’
The two met eleven years ago and on their first date he took her skydiving.
‘People should know that that guy absolutely loved the sport. He loved the diving, he loved all the people in it,’ said his friend Craig Stapleton. ‘We are going to miss him so much’.
Oka was also a fan of motorcycling and skiing, said Collins.
His girlfriend Lynn Collins tearfully spoke to KCAL-TV and told them how Oka died doing what he loved best
Skydiver survives 13,000 foot fall
Last week, Gerardo Flores survived a 13,000-foot fall after a parachute malfunction prompting an FAA report to cite a lack of industry oversight.
Flores has spoken about how fortunate he is to be alive, and the thoughts that raced through his head as he plummeted earthwards from 13,000 feet. The weather was good and everything seemed normal when Liam Dunne jumped from the plane over Moteuko, but events soon took a dramatic turn.
Mr. Dunne’s main parachute failed to open and a after a desperate struggle, he managed to release his reserve chute just 15 seconds before impact, reports the Telegraph.
According to dropzone.com, there were about 49 Skydiving related deaths last year worldwide.
What An Idiot Man Recalls When Parachute Failed
