A 27-year-old man from Bangladesh has been identified as the victim of a fatal skydiving accident that occurred Sunday near the Yolo County Airport northwest of Davis.
Investigators believe Mridul Khan’s parachute failed to open properly during the 10:45 a.m. jump, which was being performed among a group of skydivers through the SkyDance SkyDiving facility.
“His main chute didn’t deploy, and he also had a reserve parachute that wasn’t able to be deployed,” Yolo County sheriff’s Capt. Dale Johnson said of the incident. Khan was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:05 a.m.
An autopsy was scheduled for today to determine Khan’s cause and manner of death, said Gina Moya, Yolo County chief deputy coroner. Authorities also are looking into the reason his parachutes failed to deploy.
Johnson said Khan had previous skydiving experience, having performed between 20 and 30 jumps prior to Sunday’s incident. It was unknown whether he had jumped earlier in the day.
Yolo County’s last skydiving death occurred on Aug. 24, 2013, when 23-year-old Andrew Cofer, an experienced skydiver and parachute packer from Lodi, became detached from his parachute harness during his descent.
Before that, Martinez resident Kenneth Knigge, 48, became entangled with another skydiver during a June 2009 group jump and plummeted to his death.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene