A woman was killed Saturday in a sky-diving accident in Ogden — the first such accident at the 13-year-old Skydive Ogden.
Julia Bond of Evanston, Wyo., was completing her first tandem jump with an instructor Saturday when the two crashed into the concrete near a hangar.
Ogden Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Splinter said there are varying eyewitness accounts of the incident. Some said the divers clipped a building as they went across it at the north end of the Ogden Airport. Others said the divers didn't hit the building but fell 20 feet when their parachute collapsed.
"Regardless, their chute must have possibly hit a gust of wind and it collapsed and that caused them to hit the pavement," Splinter said. "Whether they actually hit this building or not, that will be part of the investigation."
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate, he added.
In a telephone interview from her home in Evanston, Tammy Bond, Julia Bond's mother-in-law, said Julia Bond was jumping in celebration of her 30th birthday, which was about a week ago.
"This is probably the first time that she had ever done something like that," Tammy Bond said.
Julia Bond was transported in critical condition to McKay-Dee Hospital Center where she died, said Lt. Marcy Korgenski, spokeswoman for the Ogden Police Department. Her instructor, whose name was not released, was flown to University Hospital with a fractured femur and head injuries. He was in serious but stable condition later Saturday, Korgenski said.
The accident happened about 3 p.m. Julia Bond's family, including her two children, were watching her sky dive, Tammy Bond said. In all, about 10 people saw the crash, said Laura Griffin, who had planned to make a dive Saturday.
Tammy Bond said that other members of Julia's family also were planning to dive Saturday. "She's the one that talked everybody into doing it with her," she said.
When the pair crashed, people began running to their aid, and once paramedics arrived, they began performing CPR on Julia Bond, Griffin said.
Medical helicopters arrived shortly afterward and transported Julia Bond and her instructor to the hospitals.
After the crash, Skydive Ogden suspended jumping operations. A spokesman from the company did not return telephone calls Saturday.
E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com, jdougherty @desnews.com