Camp Pendleton Marine dies in skydiving accident

(CNS) – An investigation was under way Wednesday into the death of a U.S. Marine from Camp Pendleton who was killed in a skydiving accident near Perris Valley Airport in Riverside County.

Firefighters were dispatched about 3 p.m. Tuesday on a report of an injured skydiver at or near 2000 Goetz Road, north of where Perris Valley Skydiving is located at the airport, according to Jody Hagemann of the Riverside County Fire Department.

The man, identified as 26-year-old Caleb Medley of Burlington, Colorado, was declared dead at the scene, she said.

Medley was doing training exercises at Perris Valley Skydiving with a group of Marines from Camp Pendleton at the time of his death, Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Lisa McConnell told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Medley landed in a 10-acre storage yard on the grounds of construction equipment auction company Western Construction Auctions, company CEO Eric Kazakoff, told The Press-Enterprise.

“The parachute didn't open … There was not a lot anybody could do,” he told the newspaper.