TWIN FALLS, Idaho – A Calgary woman is dead after her parachute failed to open during her fifth BASE jump off the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Coroner Gene Turley identified the woman who died Friday evening as 34-year-old Kristin Renee Czyz, of Calgary.
Twin Falls County Sheriff Tom Carter says a BASE jumping expert is examining her parachute to see what went wrong. Carter says she was relatively inexperienced at BASE jumping and had completed about 40 jumps in her lifetime.
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The Times-News says witnesses in boats near the bridge pulled Czyz from the Snake River and began CPR. They met emergency responders at a nearby dock where she was pronounced dead.
The Perrine Bridge is a popular spot for base jumpers but it’s not a regulated bridge.
Snake River Base Academy in Twin Falls said Czyz was a former student of theirs and she had recently completed a fundamentals course where you learn how to BASE jump without supervision.
They said 34-year-old Czyz was travelling in the U.S. at the time when she and her friends decided to do a last minute trip to jump the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls.
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The chief instructor at the academy Tom Aiello said Czyz’s gear was still at home in Canada so she called them to borrow some for the day. The company typically lends out gear to former students but only to jump the Perrine Bridge.
“She came by on Friday morning, one of our instructors checked the rig and some of the other packing tools and helmet and sent it out to her. She jumped all day Friday. I know she was at the bridge and I know some people that talked to her. I believe she made five jumps on Friday and the fifth jump was the one in which she experienced her accident,” Aiello said.
Aiello said she was an experienced BASE jumper.
“Generally accidents at the bridge happen to people who are aggressive, pushing the limits, trying the things that are a little out of hand and that wasn’t her at all. I don’t know what jumping she was doing but I knew her personally and I would not expect her to do anything like that.”
Police continue to investigate and will be checking the equipment she used at the time of her death.
The death is the first BASE jump fatality at the Perrine Bridge this year. Last spring, a 73-year-old BASE jumper died after he intentionally set his parachute on fire and leaped from the bridge.
With files from the Associated Press
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