A professional skydiver from Villa Rica was killed Wednesday apparently when her parachute collided with another jumper's canopy in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday.
Jessica Edgeington, 33, was a professional skydiver with more than 6,500 jumps, according to Flight-1, a skydiving school that offers canopy piloting instruction in DeLand, Fla. where the accident occurred.
Flight-1’s website listed Edgeington as an instructor and carried a brief description of her professional background.
“I have been skydiving since February 2000,” Edgeington said on the site. “I worked in the skydiving industry shooting tandem videos for several years, which is how I initially got interested in canopy piloting. I began competing in canopy piloting in 2006 and that quickly became my focus in the sport. I joined the PD Factory Team in January 2009 and have been competing with the team as well as teaching Flight-1 canopy courses since that time.
Police said accident was likely caused by the mid-air collision of two parachute canopies. It was unclear if Edgeington was working as instructor or practicing with her team when the accident occurred.
Edgeington attended Kennesaw State University and Montana State University, according to her profile on the website of the PD Factory Team, which comprises elite skydivers.
The website said she was a professional Flight-1 instructor, PD Factory Team pilot, skydiving photographer and videographer. Her hobbies included snowboarding, yoga, reading, hiking, camping, travel and “playing my ukulele.”
The PD Factory team described its mission on its website as working together to achieve their dream of expanding the “possibilities beyond the known boundaries of human flight.”
It said the team of “highly experienced canopy pilots has set out to bring high-speed precision canopy flight to the masses, in a way never before seen”
The website noted that by using the latest high-performance parachutes “team pilots can perform high-G spiraling maneuvers capable of achieving speeds in excess of 80 mph, then pull out of the dive into level flight mere inches above the surface for distances of several hundred feet, and still deliver a soft, stand-up landing at the end of it all.”
Skydive DeLand did not return calls seeking information, the newspaper reported.
It is the second death to occur at the facility this year, the newspaper reported. In January, a Navy SEAL, William “Blake” Marston of New Hampshire, died after an accident during a training exercise.
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