A Brigham Young University student died Wednesday afternoon in a sky diving accident at the Cedar Valley Airport 10 miles west of Lehi.
BYU spokesman Paul C. Richards identified the student as William Paul Robertson, 18, a freshman from Louisville, Ky. Robertson was enrolled as a preprofessional major at the university.He would have celebrated his 19th birthday today.
Robertson was making his first jump when the accident occurred, according to Utah County deputy sheriff Scott W. Carter. Robertson spent the morning in a ground training session at Cedar Valley Free Fall, a sky diving business, prior to making the jump.
Just before 2 p.m. Robertson, accompanied by an instructor, boarded a plane and jumped out as it passed near the airport. The instructor deployed Robertson's pilot chute, which in turn releases the main chute, and then moved away from Robertson.
Both the pilot and main chute deployed immediately and appeared to inflate properly, Carter said. However, during Robertson's descent the main chute collapsed.
The pilot chute's sole purpose is to deploy the main chute and is incapable of breaking a fall.
Robertson was killed on impact with the ground.
The Utah County sheriff's office, the state medical examiner's office and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the accident. Investigators have not determined yet what caused Robertson's main chute to col-lapse.
It is the second sky diving fatality at the Cedar Valley Airport in the past year. On Sept. 15, 1990, Mary Jane Duncan, Highland, died when her main chute wrapped around her arm and failed to open. Duncan was an experienced sky diver.