Two Highly Skilled Female Skydivers Die After Chutes Become Entangled over Southern California

Two exceptionally experienced skydivers died this weekend in a freak accident when their parachutes became entangled, causing them to plummet helplessly some 150 feet to the ground. The accident, occurring during an organized dive in Southern California, took the lives of George Jean, 56 from Box Elder, South Dakota and Levi Pimentel, 29 of Auroa, Illinois, according to news reports. The two were rushed in critical condition from the event at Lake Elsinore, about 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles, to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to the Riverside County Fire Department per a report by the Associated Press. The fatal mishap, which occurred around noon Friday, was not caused by a lack of experience. Pimentel was a lead skydiving instructor at iFLY Naperville in Illinois, according to her LinkedIn profile. Jean was the veteran of more than 1,700 jumps, according to her website. Jean, “a self-described mystic and former comedian, appeared to foreshadow the tragedy in a 2015 blog post detailing her rocky start in the sport,’” the California Post reported. Apparently, as a newbie Jean thought she would never be able to participate in the extreme sport, revealing she had failed the first level of skydiving training three times and an instructor told he she “just can’t skydive.” She later wrote, “Whether my instructor was right or not about limitations my body/mind had… I was able to overcome them, AND the incredible fear that I might be a ‘deathwish time bomb’ just waiting to go off.” She later became involved in competitive skydiving and won a bronze medal with a team in 2024 in a “mixed formation skydiving” event, according to the Post. Pimentel, though only 29, was described by the Post as a “seasoned professional” who served as the lead teacher at an indoor skydiving training center in Naperville, Illinois, according to her LinkedIn page. She had worked at the facility for eight years in a variety of instructor roles. Indoor sky diving involves a wind tunnel where first time divers learn “the basics of body flight,” according to her page. As lead instructor for four years, her role was to “develop and maintain personal coaching and safety skills for employees in the instructor role,” she stated on her page. The two women knew each other before the fatal jump, which went off flawlessly until the entanglement in the final couple of hundred feet, according to the skydiving company Skydive Elsinore, which operates in the Inland Empire. Company representatives said neither woman experienced mechanical failures, with both chutes opening at the expected safe altitude. No irregularities were reported during the exhilarating freefall portion of the descent. Both skydivers were visiting from out of town. The company issued a statement after the accident, stating, “Skydive Elsinore extends its deepest condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of both skydivers, and is grieving alongside all those affected.” “Strong winds were present at the time, with gusts reaching up to 20 mph. It remains unclear whether the conditions played a role in the collision,” the Post reported. The AP reported that the Federal Aviation Administration was notified and will collect the skydivers’ parachutes and conduct an investigation. Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more