ROCHELLE: An Ogle County Sheriff’s Office release on Friday, July 11 said that the guy from North Carolina who died in the skydiving accident on July 9 near the Chicagoland Skydiving Centre and the Rochelle Municipal Airport had been identified.
The victim was named as 40-year-old Brandon M. Schmidt from North Topsail Beach, North Carolina.
At about 6:50 p.m., the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office got a call about a skydiving accident in Rochelle near 8887 S. Illinois Route 251. The skydiver was falling without control. When deputies got to the building, they found Schmidt in the parking lot and saw that he had been seriously hurt. The Rochelle Fire Department took him to Rochelle Community Hospital, where he was later declared dead.
A second skydiver who was involved in the accident was found at Koritz Field at the Rochelle Municipal Airport and was also taken to RCH with minor injuries, according to a news statement from July 9.
According to early investigations, the two skydivers crashed into each other in the air, causing their parachute to fall on both of them. VanVickle said in a July 9 report that reserve parachutes were used, but Schmidt fell without being able to stop.
On the other side of the road from 8887 S. Illinois Route 251 is the Rochelle Municipal Airport and the Chicagoland Skydiving Centre.
The Ogle County Sheriff’s Office is still looking into what happened with the help of federal officials.
