Update Sunday 12:30 p.m.: (AP) — One of two skydivers who died plummeting into a Northern Californiavineyard was 18 and jumping for the first time.
The owner of the Northern California skydiving center where the accident happened said Sunday that the young man had his brother and others there watching when he hit the ground with his instructor.
San Joaquin County sheriff's officials say they have not yet been able to notify one of the families involved, and are not yet publicly identifying the two dead men.
Lodi Parachute Center owner Bill Dause says the first-time skydiver had been making a tandem jump Saturday with a veteran skydiving instructor. Dause says the instructor had made about 700 other jumps.
Sheriff's officers say the men's parachute did not open. Deputies found their bodies in a nearby vineyard.
The skydiving center's owner says the weather was perfect at the time of the jump. He believes conditions had nothing to do with the accident.
Original Post Saturday: (AP) — Northern
Californiaauthorities say two skydivers are dead.
San Joaquin Sheriff's Sgt. Brandon Riley said the bodies were found Saturday in a vineyard, near the city of Lodi. The skydivers, both men, had jumped in tandem.
The sheriff's office received a call about 10 a.m. indicating a parachute was down.
Riley said they are working to identify the men, who were jumping out of the Parachute Center skydiving school.
The Parachute Center's website claims to be "one of the largest and oldest drop zones in the United States," launched in 1964.
The website offers an introductory tandem jump with an instructor for $100, from 13,000 feet.
A man answering the phone at the center said he was busy and did not know if two men had died.
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