Skydiver’s memorial is Friday

Memorial services for a Newport Beach woman who died last week in a skydiving accident in Riverside County have been scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday at 2105 Bonita Canyon Road.

Brooke Baum, 33, a Newport Beach physician’s assistant, died Friday when her primary parachute did not deploy during a skydiving outing near the Perris Valley Airport, just south of the 215 Freeway.

Baum died from multiple blunt force injuries from the impact of the fall, according to an autopsy completed earlier this week by the Riverside County Coroner. Toxicology tests were not conducted as part of the autopsy, according to the coroner’s office.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

It was Baum’s second jump of the day Friday, when, for some reason, her primary parachute did not open at an altitude of about 2,500 feet.

A second, auxiliary parachute did not open until Baum was only a few hundred feet from the ground, said Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, general manager of Perris Valley Skydiving, a popular skydiving resort that operates out of the Perris Valley Airport.

“She seemed fine — she was her normal, playful fun-loving self that day,” said Brodsky-Chenfeld, who saw Baum before the accident happened.

Baum was a regular at Perris Valley Skydiving, and a seasoned skydiver who had anywhere from 500 to 1,000 jumps under her belt, Brodsky-Chenfeld said.

“Skydiving was her hobby of choice, and she was a very reasonable jumper,” Brodsky-Chenfeld said. “She was a smart girl — very heads up and she was appropriately cautious.”

The death is the third this year at Perris Valley Skydiving, Brodsky-Chenfeld said. One man had a heart attack during free fall and did not deploy his parachute.

“All three were experienced jumpers,” Brodsky-Chenfeld said. “There’s many years where there aren’t any deaths, but this year has been particularly bad.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].