Crime & Safety
Menifee Man Among Two Perris Skydiving Deaths
Patrick James McGowan II, of Menifee, leaves behind a wife, also an avid skydiver, and two young children.
A Menifee man was among two killed in a skydiving accident Thursday at Perris Valley Skydiving Center.
Patrick James McGowan II, 42, of Menifee died at about 3:36 p.m. when his canopy deflated somewhere between 200 and 300 feet and his equipment became entangled with that of another skydiver.
The fellow skydiver was a San Diego man, Christopher David Stasky, 42, the Riverside County Coroner's Office reported.
Both men died when they were unable to reinflate their canopies as they descended over Perris Valley Airport. Both were veteran skydivers. McGowan, who grew up in Hemet, leaves behind a wife and two young children. His wife is an avid skydiver.
People at the accident scene administered CPR until firefighters arrived but both men were pronounced dead at the scene at 4 p.m., according to Cal Fire and the Riverside County Fire Department.
Perris police also responded to the scene.
There have been at least two other recent skydiving deaths in this area. Nicole Hannan, a 41-year-old Australian, was killed in a skydiving accident on Feb. 28, after her backup chute failed to open. Hannan was an experienced skydiver with more than 1,000 jumps, according to an official at Perris Valley Skydiving.
On Dec. 26, 2010, Brooke Baum, 33, of Newport Beach was killed after her parachute failed to properly deploy, according to officials at Perris Valley Skydiving. Like Hannan, Baum also was an experienced jumper, as were the two men killed Thursday.
Thursday's tragedy was being investigated by the Perris police, the Riverside coroner, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.
Anyone with information about Thursday's accident was asked to call the Perris police at 951-210-1000.
A Facebook page has been set up in memory of McGowan.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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