Utah woman dies after skydiving accident

She was an experienced skydiver. But on Sunday afternoon, a 30-year-old Grantsville woman died when something went wrong.

The woman was skydiving with other people over Tooele Valley Airport, which is about five miles northwest of Tooele, said Tooele County Chief Deputy Sheriff Duke North. But sometime after her chute deployed, something went wrong and she hit the ground hard, North said.

The airport called 911 at 12:30 p.m. Emergency responders found her with head and leg injuries and immediately called for an Air Med helicopter.

She was flown to University Hospital in Salt Lake City and was taken right into surgery, but she succumbed to her injuries, North said.

Her name is not being released per her family's request.

"There was a tragic incident on Sunday. We lost one of our dear friends," said Jack Guthrie, manager of Skydive Utah, the company through which she was skydiving. "We are deeply mourning the loss of our friend."

Guthrie declined to comment further, citing the ongoing Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the accident.

Last year there were 19 fatal accidents across the country, out of about 3.1 million jumps, said Nancy Koreen, director of sport promotion at the United States Parachute Association.

mmcfall@sltrib.comTwitter: @mikeypanda