Half of all US skydiving deaths in 2019 happened at same airport

Half of all US skydiving deaths have occurred at the same airport this year- which just saw its third person die.

Brock Barto, 29, died Saturday morning at Longmont, Colorado’s Vance Brand Municipal Airport where officials are reporting ‘an unusually high number of deaths.’

Witnesses told Fox 31 that Barto’s parachute opened and appeared to be functioning, although investigators are speculating whether he may have either been trying a special maneuver or if he misjudged the landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration said they will be investigating to see if Barto’s parachute was packed correctly.

Longmont police Sargent John Wenderquist told the Denver Post: ‘From all accounts his (parachute) was functioning properly. He just misjudged his swooping landing and impacted the ground hard.’

Barto’s death comes after 23-year-old Logan Polfus died on October 18 as he did a skydiving jump alongside eight other people.

Authorities say Barto, who had completed 150 jumps, was in a one-piece tracking suit, which he was wearing for the first time and may have cause issues during his dive.

In May, Timothy DeTine, 57, died following a jump in May. Police have yet to release further information on DeTine’s death.

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Patrick Gire, 40, died earlier this month after he suffered complications from a jump in September 2018.

Gire had been skydiving for 10 years and worked for Mile-Hi Skydiving.

Mile-Hi Skydiving is the only skydiving company operating at the Vance Brand Municiple Airport and has been linked to all three of the airport’s 2019 deaths.

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There have been six reported deaths this year in the US from skydiving-related incidents.

The United States Parachuting Association’s executive director, Ed Scott told Newsweek: ‘We’ve really worked hard to lower the fatality count and the fatality rate in our sport.’

‘We do tend to see a higher rate of accidents at the busier locations,’ he said, pointing to Mile-Hi as one of the 20 busiest skydiving companies in the country.