Texas Teen Dies In Colorado Skydiving Accident

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) -- A teenage boy from Texas died in a skydiving accident Sunday near the Fremont County Airport outside Penrose. He was one day shy of his 18th birthday.

The teenager has not been identified.

Fremont County Sheriff's Office deputies and Florence Fire Department personnel were called to a field northwest of the airport at 10:12 a.m., as FCSO reported in a press release.

First responders took over life saving efforts initiated by bystanders but could not revive the teenager.

A spokesperson with the sheriff's office confirmed this was the deceased's first time skydiving. He was skydiving alone, and not in a tandem dive attached to an instructor.

High Sky Adventures reported the accident to authorities.

According to the United States Parachute Association's website, the teen was underage.

"In the US, skydiving schools require a minimum age of 18," it states.

Megan Richards of the sheriff's office told CBS4 that the main parachute did deploy. His emergency chute, too, deployed, but likely at too low an altitude to be effective.

It was not known if the teenager's equipment including an Automatic Activation Device that deploys a parachute at a predetermined altitude in case the skydiver fails to.

The sheriff's office, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board are investing the accident.