15th Death At Lodi Facility Since 2000

The restaurant on field is great, however the airport's one of the more poorly laid out ones (might be the most poorly laid out small field I've ever been to) I've been to as if you take off from the displaced threshold for runway 26 you can't see traffic rolling or waiting to depart at the intersecting runway 30 and even at the start of runway 26 there is still a ramp of a bunch of planes that could make it tough to see if a planes rolling on 30 and if they're before the hold short for 30 it's impossible to see them. I know their twin otter seemed to favor 30 since the jump center is just a few 100' from runway 30, but if you take a look on satellite view it just seems very poorly designed. You think the jump planes would just taxi a little further to 26 and give themselves more room to take off (not that they need it in a twin otter, but why not take it?). I know it's not relevant to this incident, but it just seems like it'd be one thing to work on if they strived to be safer.
 
It's a skydiving facility, the activity is inherently dangerous. 15 people who took the risk and lost? So what.
 
mshunter said:
It's a skydiving facility, the activity is inherently dangerous. 15 people who took the risk and lost? So what.
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It's one thing to take a risk and it goes south, it's another if it goes south due to negligence on the part of the company. They're basically the Allegiant of skydiving.

Your argument is basically, "Flying is inherently dangerous, they took a risk and lost. So what if it's because the company failed to maintain their planes?"
 
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Honestly, I have friends who jump there and have heard a lot. The vast, vast majority(if not all of the deaths) have been certified solo jumpers packing their parachutes wrong or making other human errors. To be fair, that is not the fault of the schools there. I met a U2 driver(now flying at Southwest if any of you guys know the guy) who jumps there all the time and really opened my eyes to the whole Lodi thing. Apparently the USPA thing isn't due to Lodi being dangerous, it was about some other stuff.

The only thing I've heard about Lodi that was really sketchy was the busted Twin Otter captain who was a PPL and may have had no MEL.
 
NovemberEcho said:
It's one thing to take a risk and it goes south, it's another if it goes south due to negligence on the part of the company. They're basically the Allegiant of skydiving.

Your argument is basically, "Flying is inherently dangerous, they took a risk and lost. So what if it's because the company failed to maintain their planes?"
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No, it's not. I flew divers for a few weeks at a local place. This isn't localized to Lodi. 15 deaths in 17 years is low. The article has no mention of whether or not Lodi was the cause of the accident rate.

Edit: Just go have a look at the accident/fatality rate at Perris. Lodi is doing pretty good.
 
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mshunter said:
No, it's not. I flew divers for a few weeks at a local place. This isn't localized to Lodi. 15 deaths in 17 years is low. The article has no mention of whether or not Lodi was the cause of the accident rate.

Edit: Just go have a look at the accident/fatality rate at Perris. Lodi is doing pretty good.
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The article seemed to insinuate it was due to negligence on the part of the skydiving company. Chasen's comment clarified that misunderstanding.
 
SeanD said:
I don't know about anyone else but I'm all about doing adrenaline-inducing things on occasion but jumping out of an airplane and assuming the chute works is something I have absolutely no interest in ever doing. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety.
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Worked with a few avid skydivers. It seems to be the guys that want to push the envelope that are the problem not the company's running a plane and a very vanilla tandem sight seeing and basic instructional course. YouTube is full of videos of guys pushing the envelope or doing sweet tricks like swooping. What it's not so full of is the guys that the video shuts off short of completing the trick.
 
So, as someone who not only flew jumpers, but is a jump instructor with over 5 1/2 hours of freefall time, 15 deaths in 17 years is a nonevent. As @Lawman said, it's all about managing the risk.

Those with a higher risk threshold are more apt to have issues. Trash pack your chute, you're gonna have a malfunction. Not if, when. No parachute I ever packed malfunctioned, and I packed close to a thousand or more. It's because I made sure they were done right. Didn't take more than a few minutes more. Bust the opening hard deck, set yourself up to bounce. Same as guys trying to swoop. Usually it was the inexperienced guys trying to imitate the skygods who ended up in the meat wagon.
 
SeanD said:
I don't know about anyone else but I'm all about doing adrenaline-inducing things on occasion but jumping out of an airplane and assuming the chute works is something I have absolutely no interest in ever doing. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety.
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Plus, I'm terrified of heights. I can't even watch YouTube videos of those guys walking on building ledges.
 
mshunter said:
Plus, I'm terrified of heights. I can't even watch YouTube videos of those guys walking on building ledges.
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You might be surprised how many skydivers are afraid of heights. Just like flying, at altitude there is no sense of height when leaving the plane.
 
mshunter said:
Plus, I'm terrified of heights. I can't even watch YouTube videos of those guys walking on building ledges.
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Im not afraid of heights really but this seriously gives me anxiety every time I look at it.

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