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Claudette Porter had wanted to skydive for decades. Then her grandchildren pitched in and paid for the 75-year-old to jump.
"She was so excited," Porter's granddaughter, Anna Vera, said Monday.
But Porter never got to celebrate her dive. Something malfunctioned with her parachutes — both her main and reserve canopies — on Sunday, according to police in Mesquite, Nev.
Porter died, as did the instructor she was tethered to, James Fonnesbeck. The 60-year-old was a part-time resident of St. George and one of the skydivers who dressed like Elvis Presley and jumped from an airplane over Las Vegas in the 1992 film "Honeymoon in Vegas."
Porter was a resident of North Las Vegas. Vera said one of Porter's children, four granddaughters and five great-grandchildren traveled to Mesquite to watch the jump. The plane carried only two customers and their tandem instructors at a time. Vera said one of her cousins and her brother-in-law jumped with Fonnesbeck earlier in the day.
Vera went up with her grandmother. It was difficult to talk on the airplane, Vera said, but her grandmother smiled at her before she and Fonnesbeck jumped. Vera and her instructor followed.
"We were up in the plane and happy and everything was good, and we jumped and our chute opened," Vera said.
Then Vera said she saw Porter and Fonnesbeck's parachutes spinning. Vera began screaming when she realized what was happening.
The instructor "just kept telling me, 'Don't look. Don't look. Don't look,' " Vera said.
Vera said some of her family on the ground didn't know if it was her or her grandmother who hit hard.
Fonnesbeck died at the scene. Porter was pronounced dead at Mesa View Regional Hospital.
Brad Jessey, owner of Skydive Mesquite, said Fonnesbeck's parachutes suffered some kind of malfunction, though no one knows specifically what happened.
Jessey said he saw both of Fonnesbeck's parachutes open but the parachutes were only "minimally slowing them down."
"Malfunctions happen. That's why we wear two parachutes," Jessey said. "But I don't know why the second one didn't open."
Fonnesbeck was a veteran sky diver who had made nearly 11,000 jumps over 30 years, according to a friend, who asked not to be named.
The friend said Fonnesbeck's wife was on the ground and witness the accident, as were 15 to 20 of Porter's family members.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the accident.
Roxana Orellana contributed to this story.
Video clip
Watch the "Honeymoon in Vegas" Flying Elvises clip: