ORANGE — The Northwestern District Attorney’s Office has identified Robert Szabo, 62, of Connecticut, as the person who died three days after being involved in a skydiving incident at Jumptown Skydiving in Orange.
Jumptown, in a statement released Tuesday, had said he was injured in a midair collision on Saturday afternoon with another experienced skydiver and landed on Orange Municipal Airport property under a “fully functioning parachute.”
“[Szabo] was taken by ambulance to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, where he remained until he died Tuesday evening,” the DA’s office wrote in a statement Thursday morning. “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.”
The incident remains under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit attached to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, the Orange Police Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the DA’s office.
The death marks Jumptown’s second skydiver fatality in less than 10 years. Alexis Zayas, 27, of Long Island, New York, died in 2018 after she “veered off course” and struck a barn.
Szabo’s friends and fellow skydivers took to social media on Wednesday, memorializing him as a mentor in the skydiving community.
Szabo is listed as an IT manager and an AFF-I coordinator on Connecticut Parachutists Inc.’s website, which states he made his first three jumps in 1981 and has “competed in competitions across multiple disciplines,” winning several skydiving awards.
Billy DelGiudice, a member of the Jumptown Experienced Jumpers Facebook group, posted on Wednesday that Szabo had been taken off life support and died in the arms of loved ones. DelGiudice, while thanking everyone who had reached out to offer support, added that Szabo had logged more than 5,000 skydiving jumps around the world.
“MRI results determined that his prognosis was poor and would not offer the quality of life Rob would have wanted, so the decision was made to remove his ventilator and let nature take its course,” DelGiudice posted in the group. “He was a very skilled and well-respected coach, Accelerated Freefall Instructor, and Safety and Training Advisor who loved imparting wisdom on new skydivers.
“Whether he greeted you with a smile or a signature eye roll, it was the warmest one around,” DelGiudice continued. “We will always remember his kindness, patience, and generosity with his time and skill.”
Orange Fire Chief James Young previously said that Orange Fire Rescue EMS responded at around 4:35 p.m. Saturday to transport the injured skydiver from where he landed, within the confines of the Orange Municipal Airport property, roughly a quarter-mile to the airport terminal where the medical helicopter arrived to fly him to the UMass Memorial Medical Center. Initial reports stated he was unconscious, Young said.
A Jumptown representative declined to comment on Szabo’s fatality when reached by phone Wednesday morning.
According to the United States Parachute Association, there were nine civilian fatalities in skydiving incidents in the U.S. in 2024, when members reported making 3.88 million skydives. The association states this is a record-low number since recordkeeping began in 1961, at which time there were 14 fatalities, while the level of skydiving activity was a fraction of what it is today. The annual number of fatalities peaked in the late 1970s.