Questions but few answers after deaths at skydiving club

OTTAWA, Ill. -- Six members of a skydiving team were gliding toward a normal landing on a typical practice jump when they heard the yell.

Above them, two members of the team had become entangled. Their canopies collapsed and the pair plunged to the ground with no time to trip their backup parachutes.

Less than a week after the seasoned jumpers fell to their deaths at the Skydive Chicago club, witnesses watched helplessly Oct. 14 as another veteran skydiver spun out of control, deploying his backup chute too late to soften the fatal fall.

It was the fourth death this year -- and the 11th since 1993 -- at the skydiving club located amid farmfields 70 miles southwest of Chicago. That accident rate prompted an inquiry from the sport's sanctioning body, the U.S. Parachute Association, and questions from LaSalle County officials who would like to see more regulation.

'It's human flight'

But skydiving veterans say what's happened at Skydive Chicago amounts to bad luck -- a reminder of the risks they're willing to take doing what they love.

"It's human flight. It's the dream you want to fulfill as a kid," said Donovan Bartlett, 29, an instructor at Skydive Chicago. "It's about the most freeing experience you can have."

Bartlett was engaged to 27-year-old Deborah Luhmann of Ottawa, who died along with 44-year-old Steven Smith of Ohio, Ill., when they became tangled in midair during the Oct. 6 team practice.

"A couple witnesses landed and heard a scream or a yell," LaSalle County Sheriff's Detective Mike Renner testified at a recent coroner's inquest. "They looked up. They only saw one" skydiver because Smith had collided with Luhmann and they were caught in one of the chutes.

No one is sure exactly what happened. The victims were careful divers, according to their friends, and toxicology tests showed they were sober. The deaths were ruled accidental.

"It's no different than making a decision at an intersection and slamming into her," said Peggy Denz, Luhmann's mother, after the inquest. "Somebody made a decision and she's gone."

Denz said her whole family likes to go skydiving and that no one should criticize the sport. Bartlett, of Ottawa, was jumping again a week after the deaths.

But even as Bartlett was getting back into the air, there was another death.

Witnesses said 38-year-old Bruce Greig, a club regular from Jacksonville, inexplicably began spiraling out of control during his jump on Oct. 14. He had plenty of time while spinning to ditch the parachute and deploy his backup, but didn't until it was too late, according to interviews detailed at the coroner's inquest.