West Newsmagazine News

West Newsmagazine is West St. Louis County's exclusive direct-mailed community newspaper.

Ballwin man dies in skydiving accident

By Gretchen A. Harman

A Ballwin man died in a skydiving accident on June 21 in Bowling Green, Mo.

Authorities said that Joseph “Jose” Connelly, 37, was one of 12 people on board a plane from the St. Louis Skydiving Center.

Authorities said that witnesses told them that Connelly apparently hit his head on part of the plane after jumping and never activated his parachute.

“The plane was climbing up and the green light had not been turned on yet,” said Paul Eriksmoen, director of Operations for the St. Louis Skydiving Center. “Jose did a ‘hop-n-pop’ where one jumps up quickly at 5,000 feet and then immediately deploys their parachute. Unfortunately, he did an early jump and hit his head on the horizontal stabilizer of the plane.”

Eriksmoen said that Connelly’s body was found an hour after the accident in a heavily wooded area.

“Due to the wooded area, it took a while to reach him,” Eriksmoen said.

Eriksmoen said it is not sure if Connelly was knocked unconscious or if he was killed when he hit the stabilizer.

“Connelly had multiple blunt force trauma to his body,” said Jim Turner, the Pike County Coroner.

Turner said that Connelly fell 5,000 to 6,000 feet.

Officials said that Connelly was an experienced skydiver.

“Jose was a regular skydiver and had been skydiving that weekend all Friday and Saturday,” Eriksmoen said.

Officials for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said they have no findings to release as of West Newsmagazine press time and are still investigating the incident.

Connelly, who attended Parkway South High School, is the son of Catherine and Patrick Cummings; the brother of Melanie, Katy, Sharon, Bobby, Jim, Cory, Eily, Sean and the late Terry; grandson of Winifred Cummings; brother-in-law of Peter Knese and Ryan Cummings; uncle of Madison Knese and Diana McKenzie Cummings.

Contributions in his name may be made to the Humane Society of Missouri, 1201 Macklind Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110, by phone at (314) 647-8800 or via hsmo.org.