Day after sky diving festival death, jumpers honor pal by continuing to jump

By Hudson Sangree - hsangree@sacbee.com

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

Sky divers kept jumping Sunday – the last day of the annual American Boogie festival in rural Yolo County – despite a horrific accident Saturday that killed an experienced jumper and seriously injured another.

The four-day festival continued with only a short pause after the two sky divers' parachutes tangled during a group jump Saturday and they hit the ground at up to 60 mph.

Kenneth Knigge, 48, of Martinez was pronounced dead Saturday in the emergency room at Sutter Davis Hospital, said Robert Labrash, Yolo County chief deputy coroner.

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

Skydiving aficionados descend on Yolo County by the hundreds

Jon Hartman, 54, of Roseville underwent surgery at UC Davis Medical Center for a fractured spine and was expected to survive without paralysis, sky divers at the festival said. He was listed in serious condition Sunday, a nursing supervisor said.

After the accident, some left, but many others stayed on for the remainder of the festival. Those who continued jumping said it was the best way to honor the two sky divers.

Sacramentan John Fosgate organized the group jump that turned tragic Saturday morning. He said the eight sky divers had performed the same formation the day before and were eager to try it again.

The maneuver requires them to jump nearly simultaneously as a "chunk" from the back of a sky van – a plane with a door that drops open in the back, Fosgate said.

Knigge was ready to go again Saturday morning: "He said, 'Here's my (jump) ticket,' " Fosgate said. "Let's do another chunk."

But this time, Fosgate said, air movements tossed the sky divers and they couldn't duplicate the maneuver.

Ray Ferrell is president of SkyDance SkyDiving, which holds the annual event at Yolo County Airport northwest of Davis. He struggled to remain composed as he described what happened. He called the accident "the ugly side of a beautiful sport."

The eight sky divers had jumped from 13,000 feet, intending to enter into a circular formation and break off at 5,000 feet, before opening their parachutes, he said.

But it appeared that Knigge's parachute deployed only partially and that he spiraled into Hartman's canopy, becoming entangled. The two started spinning under partially opened parachutes and entered into an "uncontrolled accelerated descent," he said.

Ferrell estimated they struck the ground between 35 and 60 mph – about three times faster than in a normal landing .

Knigge's mother was notified, he said, and authorities were attempting to contact an adult daughter. Knigge, who was divorced, had brought his girlfriend to the festival to make her first sky dive, he said.

Fosgate said he had jumped with Knigge several times before and had camped with him in Montana, and that Knigge was a tall, athletic man known for his sense of fun.

"They called him Party Ken," he said.

But he was also a responsible sky diving veteran who wasn't likely to "do anything silly," he said.

"Ken loved this sport very much," Fosgate said.

Knigge understood the risks and shared the philosophy of most sky divers that "it's better to scare the hell out of yourself than it is to be afraid," Fosgate said.

Jason Cahill is a veteran sky diver and paramedic with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District. When he and other medical professionals arrived, Knigge was clearly beyond help, he said. But Hartman was conscious and talking.

Cahill said they kept Hartman immobile until he could be moved safely by ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Knigge's death was at least the sixth fatality since SkyDance opened at the Yolo airport in 1987.

On Sunday, Cahill and others jumped in memory of Clifford Heller, a 40-year-old UC Davis law student who died in December 2006 in Eloy, Ariz., after he collided with another sky diver and their parachutes tangled. Memorial jumps are common and sky divers said they will likely remember Knigge in a similar fashion.

As a paramedic, Cahill has seen death in many forms. He said there's a risk of dying while sky diving; he put it at about 1 in 1,000. But he said the positives outweigh the negatives.

While sky diving with friends, he said, he has watched the sun set from two miles up and fallen through the sky at 160 mph. Such experiences are something he can't live without, Cahill said.

"It adds value to my life in ways I can't describe," he said.