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MARION - Authorities have identified the man who was killed in Wednesday afternoon's skydiving accident at Lost Prairie as 57-year old Garl "Mike" Newby of Colorado Springs, Colorado

The Flathead County Sheriff's Department released Newby's name along with additional information about the accident on Thursday.

Authorities say that Newby was a single parachuter in a group of jumpers who had just completed a formation and were all deploying their main chutes.

Newby's chute became entangled with the parachute of another jumper. The other jumper managed to remove his main chute and deploy his reserve chute. Newby also removed his main chute, but was unable to deploy his reserve parachute in time.

The Flathead County Coroner's Office reports that Newby died of blunt force trauma after striking the ground.

The Flathead County Sheriff's office is making no further comments at this time, and the investigation has been turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Lost Prairie Boogie is in its 43rd year and is a nationally recognized jump meet that brings in skydivers from across the country.The event runs until August 2nd and we're told that the meet is still open.

(from July 28, 2010)

MARION - One man is dead after a sky diving attempt turned tragic in the Flathead.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene of Lost Prairie airstrip near Marion after receiving reports a sky diver plunged to his death late Wednesday afternoon.

The adult male victim landed in an open field away from the main air strip and authorities blocked off the accident site, keeping witnesses and the media at a distance as they investigated the scene.

Flathead County Coroner Gino Cook says it is too early to know what went wrong.

"It's preliminary right now. The FAA is going to have to take a look at it. They have specialists that can look at these parachutes, find out what did or didn't happen, that should have or shouldn't have, and we will go from there."

Even as investigators worked to remove the body, skydivers continued to parachute into the vicinity.

Friends of the victim conveyed to law enforcement the victim was an experienced skydiver.

The airport has been a busy place this week with the annual "Boogie" week at Skydive Lost Prairie, which brings together experienced and rookie skydivers from all over the northwest.

Skydive Lost Prairie had its share of tragedies at the airstrip. Back in May of 2007, five people died in a plane crash after the aircraft took off okay but then crashed as it returned to the runway.

An investigation revealed there were no mechanical problems, but an oil cap was not on the oil filling tube.

The most recent incident happened in April of 2009 when a small plane lost the right side of it's landing gear as it dropped skydivers.

The plane flew for about an hour and a half to burn off fuel and then crash-landed in a field just south of the runway.

The plane flipped on its top, but the Flathead Valley pilot did not get hurt.

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