THE name of a woman who tragically died skydiving has been revealed. Kayla Kieko Black, 28, died on Sunday after being involved in a freak accident while jumping out of a plane. Black and skydiving instructor Devrey LaRiccia Chase were trapped in a "dust devil" during the jump on August 2, CW affiliate KTLA reported.
Dust devils resemble tornadoes in that they are rotating columns of air that pick up debris. However, they are usually harmless. “She missed the first one, and when she maneuvered around it, she hit the second one,” Freddy Chase, the skydiving instructor's husband, said.
“At that point, she was about 25 to 30 feet in the air...
it sent her canopy in a downward spiral.” Everything happened so fast, leaving the instructor with little time left to react. The two crashed into the ground and were immediately rushed to the hospital, where they were later pronounced dead.
Chase has a large following for his skydiving antics, and recently posted honoring his late wife. "There was no malfunction, there was no plane incident, she was turning her canopy on final to come land safely on the grass, like she has done hundreds of times," he said of her death in an Instagram story. Most read in The US Sun "She noticed what we call in the industry 'dust devils' small little tornados that are dangerous in the sport.
"At about 40ft Devrey avoid one of them, but caught a second one, with dust devils going over grass they come invisible because you can't see any dust in the dir.