ORANGE — A skydiver has died following an incident at Jumptown Skydiving over the weekend, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office confirmed Wednesday.
The death marks Jumptown’s second skydiver fatality in less than 10 years. Alexis Zayas, 27, of Long Island, New York, died in 2018 after she “veered off course” and struck a barn.
Laurie Loisel, a spokesperson for the DA’s office, confirmed Wednesday afternoon that a skydiver died, but said she could not publicly identify the victim at this time. The cause of the incident remains under investigation.
Orange Fire Chief James Young previously said that Orange Fire Rescue EMS transported the man to the Orange Municipal Airport terminal at approximately 4:35 p.m. Saturday. From there, a medical helicopter flew the injured man to the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester for treatment at the trauma center.
“We did have an initial report that the skydiver was unconscious and was treated. … It was a traumatic injury,” Young said in a phone interview Monday. “Our ambulance responded initially to the call, and then our fire engine, as well as additional personnel [who] secured the landing zone at the airport for the helicopter.”
Young confirmed that the skydiver jumped from a Jumptown Skydiving plane and landed within the confines of the Orange Municipal Airport property, roughly a quarter-mile from the airport terminal where the medical helicopter arrived.
Jumptown’s management team recounted the incident in a statement Tuesday evening, clarifying that “there was a midair collision between two experienced skydivers” and that the “injured jumper landed on airport property under a fully functioning parachute.”
A Jumptown representative declined to comment on the parachutist’s fatality when reached by phone Wednesday morning.
According to the United States Parachute Association, there were nine civilian fatalities in skydiving incidents in the U.S. in 2024, when members reported making 3.88 million skydives. The association states this is a record-low number since recordkeeping began in 1961, at which time there were 14 fatalities while the level of skydiving activity was a fraction of what it is today. The annual number of fatalities peaked in the late 1970s.
Correction, October 9, 2025 9:12 am: This article has been amended to provide clearer attribution. The Northwestern District Attorney's Office confirmed the skydiver died, while Orange Fire Chief James Young and Jumptown Skydiving say the incident involved a midair collision. The cause of the incident remains under investigation, according to the DA's office.