14 DAY TRIAL // Two skydivers from Iceland have passed away after a jump in the Zephyrhills area in Florida, some 30 miles (48.3 km) from Tampa.
The divers took part in a group jump in the proximity of Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. Upon landing, the other divers noticed that two people that jumped out of the plane had not made it to the landing spot at the same time as other members of their group did.
The Skydive City company put together the 22-person event that ended in two participants going missing, Christian Post writes.
Its co-owner T.K. Hayes alerted the authorities about the men going missing at 10:30 a.m., prompting a search and rescue operation that had teams scouring the area in search for the travelers.
At around 7:30 p.m., their bodies were recovered near the airport, in a wooded area off Yonkers Road, Tampa Bay Online reports.
Those who lost their lives in the crash were 41-year-old Orvar Arnarson, an experienced skydiver and diving instructor and 25-year-old Andrimar Pordarson who was trying to learn how to dive.
The 22 people that took part in the group jump were tourists who gave skydiving a try during their Florida vacation.
"It's always a sad thing. [...] I'm very interested to know what happened and how we can learn from it.
"Skydiving gets safer and safer every year, but it's still an extreme sport," Hayes says.
Authorities have launched an investigation into what caused the incident, and they are looking into whether or not the jumpers' parachutes have been deployed.
In a similar incident we reported on, a Florida tourist went missing in Mount Si, Washington in January, after a skydive from a helicopter at an altitude of 6,500 feet (1981 m). 29-year-old Kurt Ruppert has not been found as of yet and is believed dead.