Skydiver killed at Lost Prairie Boogie

A 27-year-old Washington man died Saturday afternoon while skydiving at the 44th annual Lost Prairie Boogie near Marion.

Zack Fogle, of Kingston, Wash., was a licensed skydiver with about five years experience and more than 125 jumps. He was also a quadriplegic with limited mobility or function in his extremities, according to the Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry.

Fogle's equipment was determined to be current in inspections and service and was in proper working order, Curry said in a July 31 press release.

Fogle, however, failed to manually deploy his primary or emergency parachutes after leaving the plane, and a follow-up investigation indicated that the emergency deployment mechanism that would have released Fogle's emergency parachute as a fail-safe mechanism had not been properly activated, Curry said.

The incident was investigated by the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, the United States Parachute Association and the Federal Aviation Administration.

A Colorado man died at the event last year when his parachute became entangled with another jumper's equipment during a formation dive, and five people died at the airfield in 2007 when a skydiving plane crashed shortly after takeoff,

The nationally recognized 10-day event was expected to draw about 250 skydivers this year.