One dead, one hospitalized in midair skydiving collision

May 25-One skydiver is dead and another is injured after they collided midair Sunday evening, according to the Adams County Sheriff's Office.

After notifying families, the office identified the man who died as 70-year-old Randy Hubbs, of Kennewick. The other skydiver, 52-year-old Nicole Klein, of Colville, was injured in the midair collision and taken to a hospital Sunday, according to a social media post from the sheriff's office. Klein's hip was injured, and she is expected to recover fully, according to a release from Skydive West Plains, the host business where the incident occurred.

Klein was still in the hospital Monday afternoon, Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner said.

Both were licensed and experienced skydivers, according to the release from Skydive West Plains. Hubbs was a regular at the business and had skydived around 800 times, while Klein has around 900 dives under her belt, the release states.

The two were part of an 11-person group jump scheduled at Skydive West Plains, 2045 block of E. Schoessler Road, off Interstate 90 near Ritzville. About 5:30 p.m., authorities received word of a medical emergency in the area. Hubbs was dead when authorities arrived; it's unclear whether he died from the collision, Wagner said.

After Hubbs and Klein separately jumped from a plane, eyewitnesses said the two appeared to have a "normal free fall," according to the release. At 1,000 feet in the air, they successfully deployed their parachutes when their parachutes collided, the two unaware of the other's position.

From the ground, staff could see Hubbs was "incapacitated" and couldn't control his parachute, according to the Facebook post from the sheriff's office. As he descended from 500 feet in the air, staff on the ground could make out his head and arms dangling as he "appeared unresponsive" and didn't make a controlled landing.

They watched Hubbs drift from the designated drop zone, disappearing beyond a hill northeast of where he intended to land.

"The Skydive West Plains community is mourning the loss of a friend who has been part of the drop zone family for nearly a decade," the release from Skydive West Plains reads. "The team's thoughts are also with the second jumper and her family as she recovers."

Weather conditions are not considered to be a contributing factor in the incident, according to the sheriff's Facebook post.

Hubbs' body is in the care of the Adams County coroner, according to the post.

The incident is under investigation; anyone with information is asked to call the Adams County Sheriff's Office at 509-659-1122 or email crimetips@co.adams.wa.gov.

Skydive West Plains wrote the company is cooperating with the investigation from authorities and from the United States Parachute Association. Skydive West Plains is "committed to upholding the highest standards of training, safety, and professionalism," according to its release.

Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.

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