Woman killed in Lodi skydiving crash identified

The 28-year-old skydiver killed Thursday afternoon when she strayed off course and crashed into a big rig on Highway 99 had done more than 150 previous jumps, the owner of the Lodi Parachute Center said.The skydiver has been identified as Maria Vallejo, of Colombia, by the San Joaquin County Coroner's Office.The crash happened around 2:15 p.m. near Jahant Road, according to the California Highway Patrol's Stockton office.CHP said Vallejo was skydiving in a group of seven people when she was blown off course and hit the big rig, officials said.After hitting the big rig, Vallejo collided with the shoulder of southbound Highway 99. CHP said she was pronounced dead at the scene.The other six people in her group landed safely, CHP said.Vallejo took off from the Lodi Parachute Center before hitting the big rig, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office.The owner of the Lodi Parachute Center said Friday that Vallejo was a veteran skydiver who’d jumped 20 times in the past two weeks alone.It’s not known if windy conditions played a factor in the crash.The NTSB is investigating the incident.The Skydive Lodi Parachute Center is located at 23597 Frontage Road 99, which runs parallel to Highway 99. The business has been in this location since 1964 and uses an empty field near Frontage Road 99 and Jahant Road as a landing zone.Thursday’s death is the latest in a series of fatalities and violations at the Lodi Parachute Center.From 1999 to 2018, 16 people died jumping from planes that took off from the parachute center. The most recent death before Thursday was on Oct. 14, 2018, when a woman’s parachute failed to open during a jump.