28 people have died while skydiving in the past 30 years and don't get me wrong I'm not talking about global statistics here or that of an entire country that's the number of tragic incidents that have occurred in just one place the Skydive Lo ey parachute Center in California when the Sacramento B exposed these numbers it sparked intense debates some blame the center for the deaths While others argue that the death rate is quite typical for the sport to figure out who's really at fault I'll tell you about the most infamous tragic cases at the loodi
center but just a heads up as always viewer discretion is advised $150 that's the price of a Skydive at Loi one of the lowest in the US visitors can jump from almost 4,000 M this Center is very popular in the states yet globally notorious for its number of fatalities there's no official data on skydiving incidents since no Center is required to report them however Jim Crouch from the United States parachute Association said he can't recall any other large Skydiving Center with this many deaths the statistics show that in 2010 alone 10% of all skydiving fatalities
worldwide happened precisely at the LOI parachute Center but when asked what changes he made after these accidents owner Bill Daws replied with nothing according to him each accident was different and skydiving is risky anyway some incidents at the center indeed support the owner's View that fateful Year of 2010 28-year-old James Martin oconor visited Loi James was experienced so he jumped solo without an instructor Witnesses remember seeing James stepping out of the plane without even trying to open his main or Reserve parachute unfortunately the jump ended lethally it turned out that just days before the accident
James had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital all signs pointed to James intentionally ending his life but can the center be held responsible for that it's not like they can conduct a psychological evaluation with every customer it's also hard to blame the center for the death of young Devon Whitaker in 1992 in midair both his main and Reserve parachutes got tangled leading to his fatal fall While most centers don't allow miners to jump Loi permits 16-year-olds to jump with parental consent Devon's mother had signed the waiver allowing him to jump releasing the center from any
potential blame now here's the twist Devon was only 15 the staff insisted he looked older and besides he'd already completed 10 successful jumps still I can't help but wonder when he managed those jumps and how old he was during the first one the biggest question is whether they all took place at the same Center regardless the document signed by his mother absolves the loodi parachute Center of any liability plus parachutes can tangle if the reserve is deployed prematurely something Devon might have done in a panic even strong winds could cause it however the next story
is even more complicated 57-year-old Sabrina call was a seasoned skydiver with over 2,100 jumps under her belt yet on April 17th 2021 she faced the same fate as Devon at the LOI Center both her parachutes Tangled failing to inflate properly leading to her tragic death if even a pro couldn't handle this the parachutes might have been improperly packed or the deployment mechanism malfunctioned unfortunately I couldn't find more details or a thorough investigation into this case but with each new story it's getting harder to justify the center the guy in this video is Tyler Turner name
is Tyler Turner I am going to jump out of a plane a little bit scary I'm when I get up there it's going to be like oh gosh J's going to kick in just going to just let it happen in 2016 the 18-year-old and two of his best friends wanted to celebrate their High School graduation with their first ever Skydive before starting college at UC mered together in the fall Tyler's mother fr and seen Turner accompanied them to the LOI parachute Center Tyler was born with Cerebral paly but it never stopped him from living life
to the fullest and his loved ones always supported him however Francine felt uneasy when the boys were shown a safety video while simultaneously signing the liability waiver making it hard for them to focus on top of that they were taken to try on harnesses before the video even finished everything seemed rushed before boarding the plane Tyler knelt and prayed then turned and hugged his mom tightly little did she know this would be the last time she would see her son alive Tyler jumped in tandem with 25-year-old instructor yongwan who had moved from South Korea 2
months earlier and spoke very little English despite this he had an impressive record with 700 jumps under his belt minutes later Francine saw her son's friends returning from the Drop Zone with somber expressions and without Tyler among them the video footage shows Tyler's and Quan's Main and Reserve parachutes Tangled prev ing either from opening both of them fell to their deaths Tangled parachutes weren't the only cause of this fatal incident it was discovered that the instructor paired with Turner wasn't properly certified and therefore didn't have the skills to respond quickly in such emergencies to make
matters worse he had lied about his experience after Tyler's death the center was ordered to pay the Turner family $40 million yet the facility didn't correct its mistakes in May 2024 8 years after the incident Robert pulley who trained instructors at the loai parachute Center was charged with forging signatures on certification documents Robert made himself a fake new certification after his old one expired and forged United States parachute Association ratings for his students which regulate skydiving and United parachute Technologies which set safety standards and certifies instructors this way Robert tried to make himself look more
important and create the impression that his students could receive legitimate ratings from his courses he even charged a hefty $11,100 for the course by the way Robert trained and certified yongwang who died alongside Tyler Turner during pulley's arrest sener owner Bill Doss defended his reputation claiming the accusations were false the investigation is ongoing and it's hard to say if that's true however there are suspicions that the center has issues with its instructors and equipment on September 19th 2019 a traffic jam formed on Frontage Road 99 near the LOI parachute Center like other drivers Rich Edwards
got out of his car to see what had caused the stoppage there on the asphalt near a truck with a trailer lay the body of a dead woman tingled in a parachute her name was Maria roblo Vallejo that day the 28-year-old Colombian was skydiving in a group of six usually at Loi skydivers fly over the highway but land back on the grassy area however the wind carried Maria away from the center's safe landing Zone and into the flow of cars on the highway one witness said he saw a wind gust catch her right after she
jumped from the plane her body moved rapidly and it was clear she was desperately fighting against the wind yet she couldn't save herself children who were in cars on the highway with their parents witnessed the incident Rick Costa who regularly drives a truck loaded with vehicles on this highway for work constantly sees skydivers flying over the road he believes the company chose a dangerously unsuitable location for its business and it was only a matter of time before one of its clients landed on a vehicle moreover Rick is concerned that this might not be the last
death due to this reason yet owner Bill Doss remains confident that the center is not at fault he claims that on that day the wind gusts were around 27 kmph a permissible speed for vallejo's skill level Daws also pointed out that visitors have successfully made jumps even in stronger winds Maria was an experienced skydiver having completed over 150 jumps before and the parachute was in good condition however was the center's equipment reliable George post was in despair so he called his brother John a dedicated skydiver George hadn't pursued his favorite sport for 3 years but
he finally decided to return to it he was worried he might have lost his skills so he wanted to use his own parachute one he was familiar with and trusted however owner Bill Doss considered it dangerous as George's parachute was old so he allowed him to use only the center's equipment Bill assured him that their parachutes were practic the same as George's so George was even more confused if they were basically identical why couldn't he jump with his own his brother John disapproved of this risky Venture but George missed skydiving too much in the end
when George was already in the air he apparently couldn't reach the cord for the main parachute and didn't manage to deploy the reserve he lost his life this was a tremendous shock for his brother JN who blamed the center's owner for the accident Jon believed that dos should have forbidden his brother from jumping knowing how long his break from skydiving had been John said that if his brother was allowed to jump he should have been provided with a safety system where the parachute opens automatically once the person jumps from the plane however the likelihood of
a parachute not opening is much lower than you might think for example in 2021 only one in 721 skydivers had to use a resered parachute during a jump so it's strange that the loai center has had so many accidents due to unopened or Tangled parachutes the centers are owner on the other hand suggests that post may have turned off the automatic activation device for the reserve parachute which could have saved his life some experienced jumpers disabled this device because they don't trust it so there's no fault of the center here these stories raise suspicion but
I've seriously pondered the words the center's owner says in his defense Bill Doss himself is one of the most experienced skydivers in the country with 21,000 jumps to his name when asked why he doesn't shut down the center he compares his work to a football match he says that when an injured player is taken off the field the stadium isn't closed the spectators aren't sent home and the team doesn't stop playing in his opinion accidents during skydiving are just a part of the sport yes it's very dangerous and anything can happen in the air so
if you're not ready for that then don't jump actually the high number of incidents can be explained by the popularity of the LOI seter the more jumps there are the greater the likelihood that something will go wrong for some of the visitors besides statistics show that most skydiving accidents result from simple Human air do claims he can't be held responsible for the skydiver's mistakes bill says that even in the safest car with the best training the driver compress the gas instead of The Brak the fact that bill Doss is a very skilled and eloquent skydiver
is undeniable but does that justify him as the owner of a skydiving business I'm not sure either way the parachute Center continues to operate despite the Employment Development Department of California finding DA's $2.3 million which he hasn't paid along with several other fins I won't ask you to decide who's responsible for all these deaths the center and its owner or just bad luck instead I invite you to share whether you'd be willing to visit the extreme sports center in Loi also subscribe to my channel we often discuss the risks of various extreme sports here I
do recommend watching my videos before before you decide to do something crazy
