A Skydiving Center's Clients Kept Mysteriously Dying. Now, One of Its Instructors Is Going to Jail.

"Skipping the training part is what took my son’s life, and they’re responsible for that."

Death Dive

A skydiving center in San Joaquin County, California, has seen a shocking 28 deaths since opening its doors in 1985.

And now, as SFGate reports, an instructor at the school, who has been accused of fraudulently training new instructors, has been sentenced to two years in prison.

In May, instructor Robert Pooley was found guilty of running unauthorized tandem skydiving courses at the Lodi Parachute Center, training more than 100 instructors by falsifying a digital signature of a different instructor.

According to an official statement by the US Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of California, Pooley "falsely told students that he was a tandem examiner."

Off License

In 2016, 18-year-old high school graduate Tyler Turner and his tandem instructor died after plummeting to their death in a nearby vineyard.

The deceased instructor was trained by Pooley, who had his instructor certification suspended in 2015.

"In 2016, Pooley accepted numerous students in this manner from around the world, including the Republic of Korea, Chile, and Mexico," the Attorney's Office statement reads. "Each student paid approximately $1,100 for these courses."

Many of Pooley's victims "asked for their money back, but he did not repay them," the statement reads.

Earlier this year, SFGate reported that the Lodi Parachute Center had experienced a baffling 28 fatalities linked to accidents at the center between 1985 and 2021.

But how bad the situation really is is almost impossible to tell.

According to a 2008 report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration "does not have data on the number of parachute jump operators or the number and type of aircraft used in parachute jump operations in the US."

"The absence of these data precludes any calculations of safety statistics for parachute jump operations, including accident rates," the report reads.

As the SFGate points out, there are no particular licenses required for skydiving pilots, and there are only a handful of training requirements. A private lobbying group called the US Parachute Association takes care of certification on behalf of the FAA.

In short, it's unclear just how bad the situation got at the Lodi Parachute Center — but Pooley's recent sentencing will likely be a black mark in the history of the sport.

"They were not properly trained," Turner's mother told Inside Edition in May. "Skipping the training part is what took my son’s life, and they’re responsible for that."

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