Kayla Kieko Black and Devrey LaRiccia Chase killed in skydiving accident as they began to land after being caught in freak weather pattern just feet from the ground.
It was the last dive of the day… but it turned out to be the last dive either women would ever take …
A female skydiver who died alongside her instructor in a freak California weather related incident last week has been identified as a restaurant server.
Kayla Kieko Black, 28, was pronounced dead at a Riverside County hospital on Saturday – just one day after she and her skydiving instructor hit twin ‘dust devils’ at around 40 feet above ground.
‘There was no malfunction…’
Dust devils are small tornadoes that form in areas of strong surface heating when there are clear skies and light winds, according to the National Weather Service.
They are generally considered harmless. Except when they aren’t…
As Black and her instructor, Devrey LaRiccia Chase, 28, hit upon the twin dust devils as they came in to land on Aug. 2 they started to experience turbulence, Skydive Perris manager Dan Brodskey-Chenfeld said in a statement to Fox 11.
Chase, who was on her last dive of the day as an instructor at Skydive Perris, noticed the first dust devil around 40 feet and was able to safely glide her and her student away from it, but got caught in a second that caused the pair to start spiraling to the ground, her husband Freddy Chase wrote in an Instagram Story.
By the time they reached around 25 feet off the ground, they hit the second dust devil – leaving them no time to react and slamming into the ground below, Freddy told KTLA.
‘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,’ Freddy wrote on Instagram.
Chase was found unconscious but still breathing and was taken to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
Black tragically was pronounced dead one day later.
Living the dream at their level
Family members said Black, a resident of Buena Park, California, worked as a server at Niko Niko Japanese Restaurant in La Habra for nearly nine years, and had recently started working at Benihana in Anaheim.
‘She had many regulars that loved her, and she was already touching lives at Benihana, as she had an infectious personality,’ Kayla’s father, Bill Black, told KTLA.
He said her life dreams revolved around an RV that she had bought in the hopes of renovating it and working remotely while living ‘wherever she wanted to go.
‘I know it’s not glamorous, but that was her dream,’ her father said.
‘She loved to venture out and try different activities, such as skydiving… this tragic accident was her second.’
An online fundraiser to raise money for her funeral expenses also described Black as ‘a vibrant and loving 28 year-old-woman whose spirit touched everyone she met.’
Another fundraiser has been set up to bring Chase’s body home to be buried in Maine, where she’s originally from.
She moved from Maine to California eight years ago.
‘I loved that perfect girl,’ Freddy wrote of Chase on Monday.
‘She was beautiful in the sport and in her passion for skydiving,’ he told KTLA. ‘It was what she talked about every day. She loved doing what she did.’
