Skydiver falls 14,000 feet to his death after collision with another skydiver

Deputies in South Carolina say a skydiver fell about 14,000 feet to his death after a midair collision with another skydiver.

Investigators say Bond Springer, 32, of Boca Raton, Fla., was found dead in a wooded area of Chester County, SC, not far from the Chester airport around 8:52 a.m. Sunday, almost 14 hours after a team jump from an airplane went fatally wrong.

Springer, described as an experienced skydiver in a news release from the Chester County Sheriff’s Office, was skydiving in a wing suit around 7:10 p.m. when he collided midair with a second skydiver.

The other man landed when his parachute deployed and was transported by EMS with a broken leg, according to a sheriff’s incident report, but it was unclear where Springer had landed and rescue crews had to be called out to locate him. Seachers had to call off their efforts as storms rolled into the area and resumed the search at 7 a.m. Sunday.

His body was discovered a short time later. Investigators are treating the area as a crime scene. Chief Deputy Robert Sprouse said it is standard procedure to begin an investigation whenever a body is discovered. The Chester County coroner was called to the scene shortly after the man was discovered.

Both men were jumping as a part of the annual CarolinaFest skydiving festival.

“Both skydivers in the incident were experienced and were executing advanced wing-suit manuevers,” Skydive Carolina said in a statement. “No malfunction is believed to have occurred with any equipment and all was normal leading to the collision.”

Officials did not say if his parachute opened or not.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on heraldonline.com.

This story was originally published June 5, 2016 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Skydiver falls 14,000 feet to his death after collision with another skydiver."