Skydiving instructor dies and student seriously injured after ‘dust devil’ disrupts their landing

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A professional skydiving instructor has died and her student left seriously injured after the pair collided with “dust devils” in southern California on Friday.

An instructor for Skydive Perris, Devrey LaRiccia Chase, 28, was on her last jump of the day. She and her student were descending with their parachute deployed in a routine tandem jump when they encountered the dust devils, according to Devrey’s husband, Freddy Chase, via KTLA 5 News.

Dust devils are dust-filled whirlwinds, which can also contain debris, and form in dry and clear-sky conditions when the ground reaches a high temperature. They resemble a small tornado but are not generally thought to be a threat.

A fellow skydiver, LaRiccia Chase’s husband, 32, explained that she managed to avoid the first dust devil but was caught in the second as it was travelling over grass, meaning she could not see the direction in which it was moving.

This sent her canopy into an uncontrolled spin, bringing her and her student crashing into the ground from a height of approximately 25 to 30 feet.

The pair were transported to hospital, where LaRiccia Chase was later pronounced dead. As of Tuesday (6 August) the identity and status of her student have not been released.

In a post on Instagram, where he has over 400,000 followers, her husband expressed his grief at losing his wife, who he had known for five years, and called her an “angel”.

“I loved you so much baby, I don’t know how I’m going to get through the rest of my life not hearing your obnoxious laugh, staring into your beautiful eyes or not seeing your breathtaking smile every day,” he wrote.