Randy Hubbs, a 70-year-old real estate investor and former music teacher from Washington state, died after colliding with another skydiver during a group jump near Ritzville. The other jumper, Nicole Klein, was injured and taken to a hospital. Both were experienced, Hubbs had logged more than 800 jumps, Klein roughly 900.
The collision happened around 5:30 p.m. during a scheduled jump involving 11 skydivers at Skydive West Plains of Ritzville in Adams County. Witnesses told police that Hubbs's head and arms went limp after impact. He lost control of his parachute, drifted north from the designated drop zone, and disappeared beyond a hill.
The Adams County Sheriff's Office confirmed Hubbs's death and stated that he "reportedly became incapacitated and was no longer in control of his parachute canopy" following the collision. His body was released to the Adams County Coroner's Office. An autopsy will determine the exact cause of death.
This was not a novice's mistake. Hubbs had completed more than 800 skydives over the course of what appears to have been years of serious participation in the sport. Klein, the skydiver he collided with, had even more experience, approximately 900 jumps. Both were using personally owned equipment at the time of the incident.
Officials said weather conditions were not considered a contributing factor.
What remains unknown is why the two collided in the first place. The source material from the sheriff's office and Skydive West Plains staff describes the collision and its aftermath but offers no explanation of the mechanics, whether it was a canopy entanglement, a navigational error during descent, or something else entirely. That question will likely fall to the autopsy and any further investigation.
Klein was transported to a nearby hospital, but her current condition remains unknown. The hospital has not been publicly identified.
Hubbs was far more than a weekend thrill-seeker. He and his wife Jana co-operated Investment Housing Specialists, a real estate firm in the Tri-Cities area of Washington focused on buying, selling, and helping clients acquire investment properties. He had more than 40 years of combined experience in teaching and real estate investing, and had been active as a broker and investor since at least February 2015.
Before his real estate career, Hubbs served as Director of Instrumental Music at Pasco High School. He had been involved with the Columbia Basin Jazz Orchestra since 1987 and served as its director since 2003, a role he held for more than two decades.
Last month, Hubbs reshared a photo on Facebook from a January 2022 group jump at Skydive Perris in California, writing that he was "getting ready for another awesome season at Skydive West Plains!" It was the kind of post that reads differently now, a man looking forward to something he loved, with no reason to think it would end this way.
In June of the prior year, Hubbs had posted about his 44th wedding anniversary with Jana. His words were simple and affectionate:
"They say opposites attract and I do believe that's true 44 years later. Still totally in love!"
The Adams County Sheriff's Office offered condolences. The office stated: "We offer our deepest condolences to those impacted by this incident."
But condolences don't answer the harder questions. How did two experienced skydivers, with nearly 1,700 jumps between them, end up on a collision course during a routine group descent? Were there protocols in place for spacing among the 11 jumpers? Did the group size contribute to the risk? Was the drop zone adequate for that many canopies?
None of these questions have been addressed publicly. The autopsy has not yet been completed, and no findings from any equipment inspection have been released. Skydive West Plains staff tracked Hubbs from approximately 500 feet above ground level as he drifted north, but no account explains how his body was ultimately located or recovered after he passed beyond the hill.
The Federal Aviation Administration regulates skydiving aircraft and operations, but much of the safety culture in recreational skydiving relies on the judgment and training of individual jumpers and drop zone operators. When something goes wrong between experienced participants using their own gear in clear weather, the margin between routine and fatal can be vanishingly thin.
Randy Hubbs built businesses, taught music, led a jazz orchestra, invested in property, and jumped out of airplanes for the sheer joy of it. He was married for more than four decades to a woman he publicly adored. He was 70 years old and still chasing seasons.
His death is a reminder that risk doesn't always punish the reckless. Sometimes it finds the prepared, the experienced, and the people who did everything right, and still ran out of room in the sky.
A community in the Tri-Cities lost a man who gave more than he took. The least the authorities owe his family now is a thorough, transparent accounting of what went wrong.
