Two skydivers die after landing-approach collision at Skydive Elsinore

The fatal emergency unfolded in the last part of the jump, not during free fall. Skydive Elsinore, the operation hosting the event, said the skydivers collided about 150 feet above the ground and their parachutes became entangled. That account describes how the descent turned deadly; it does not yet explain why their paths crossed.⁠1

Deputies responded to an air-emergency report at 11:47 a.m., according to ABC7 Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Times. The accident happened in Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County. The sheriff's office is investigating, and no final finding in the available reporting establishes a cause or assigns responsibility.⁠9⁠13

Skydive Elsinore described both participants as licensed and experienced visitors from out of town. Those details distinguish them from first-time participants, but they cannot answer the central question facing investigators. Experience alone does not establish what either skydiver saw, what decisions preceded the collision or whether it could have been avoided.⁠1⁠2

According to the company's statement, both the free-fall portion of the jump and the opening of the parachutes were normal. The two skydivers then moved into their landing approach. The reported collision came after those earlier phases had been completed, with both parachutes deployed. The approximately 150-foot height is the operator's estimate, not a final investigative determination.⁠1

That sequence matters. A normal parachute opening and a later entanglement are not contradictory descriptions: they concern different stages of the jump. In the operator's account, the emergency began when the skydivers came into contact while preparing to land, rather than when their parachutes opened. The statement does not establish why that contact occurred.⁠1

The distinction between the ground impact and the hospital outcome matters, too. The company said both suffered critical injuries when they reached the ground. The sheriff's department said they were transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead there. Neither account describes deaths pronounced at the scene.⁠1

CBS Los Angeles and CBS Bay Area carried the operator's description of the accident and the sheriff's account of the deaths. Their reporting draws on those same institutional accounts; it should not be mistaken for two separate investigative findings about the collision. The detailed flight sequence remains attributed to Skydive Elsinore.⁠1⁠2

Skydive Elsinore also said there was no evidence of equipment malfunction. That is narrower than a completed investigation finding that every part of the equipment worked correctly. It does not, on its own, rule out every possible contributing factor, establish fault or explain how two deployed parachutes came together.⁠1

The unresolved issue is therefore not simply whether the parachutes opened. The operator says they did. Investigators still have to determine why the landing approaches ended in a collision. No final explanation in the available reporting resolves that question, and the skydivers' licenses and experience are not substitutes for one.⁠1⁠9

There is also no verified announcement in the available reporting of a closure, suspension or reopening at Skydive Elsinore. The fatal accident should not be turned into an unsupported claim about the facility's current operating status. Likewise, reports naming the victims have not been verified against coroner records for this article, so their identities are not established here.

The confirmed consequence is two deaths following a collision during the approach to landing. The operator has supplied a preliminary sequence; the sheriff's investigation has not supplied a final explanation. Keeping those separate is essential to understanding both what happened to the two visitors and what is still owed an answer.⁠1⁠2⁠9