Twenty-three-year-old Spencer W. Connolley died in a skydiving accident on Sunday, July 14, at the Canyonlands Field Airport in Moab.
Connolley experienced “a fast and hard landing,” the Grand County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release the same day.
The accident happened at about 2 p.m. and remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office.
Skydive Moab management said on Monday, July 15, that a memorial was held Sunday evening at the airport attended by members of Moab’s skydiving community.
A skydiver who goes by the name of Redeye said, “It’s too early to talk about it; we lost a good friend yesterday.”
The fatality occurred in the designated skydive area at the airport and appears to be the first skydiving fatality in the Moab area, Grand County Airport Director Judd Hill said on July 15. Hill said he is not aware of any skydiving fatalities in the Moab area in the 10 years that he’s lived here.
A Park City man died in 2007 when he jumped out of a plane at the airport wearing a wingsuit, according to archived reports. Wingsuit flying entails wearing a one-piece fabric suit to glide through the air horizontally to a landing zone.
Spencer W. Connolley, 23, suffered fatal injuries in fall
