An 18-year-old girl died in a skydiving accident in Georgia this week, according to her family. Jeanna Triplicata had been dreaming of skydiving since she turned 18, and she finally left with her grandmother on Sunday, her mother, Bridgette Triplicata, wrote on Facebook.
“Grandma decided she wanted to go with her and they booked a jump for today,” says the Triplicata post. “They jumped and mom’s landing was perfect, she had a lot of fun but Jeanna didn’t go down to where she was supposed to and where we could see her.”
“Tragically, today we lost our oldest daughter,” the publication continues. Triplicata shared the last photo her daughter took, standing with her grandmother, just before boarding the plane at Skydive Atlanta in Thomaston, Georgia.
Nick Esposito, the 35-year-old skydiving instructor who jumped along with Triplicata, also died. In an interview with CBS affiliate WMAZ, Esposito’s wife, Kristin Esposito, said he started skydiving in 2011 and trained to be an instructor in California.
“We met on a plane, ironically. Planes play a big theme in our lives,” said Esposito. “We made a lot of tandems together … We have a lot of Christmas cards of us dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus or some other Christmas theme.”
“He’s a good soul, Nick,” said Esposito. “She is one of those people whose big part of life is just taking care of yourself and caring for others and having a good time.”
The jump was the first for Triplicata, who recently graduated from high school and was planning to attend North Georgia University to specialize in education, according to a GoFundMe created for her family.
In a lengthy and candid Facebook post, Triplicata’s father, Joey Triplicata, wrote about his first daughter. “The moment I saw her, I saw my mother, who passed away when I was 5, in her. We had already decided to call her Jeanna after my mother Jean, which made that incredible moment even more perfect for us.” wrote
Triplicata said he was “so proud to be her father every day” and that he loved telling people that she was on the color guard at Northgate High School and that she would go to the University of North Georgia.
“Although the pain I feel is beyond words, it does not compare with the joy of being Jeanna’s father,” he wrote. “I will hurt and miss her every day for the rest of my life, but it pays to be the father of the most wonderful person there can be.”
CBS News has reached out to Triplicatas and is awaiting a response.
According to WMAZ, Skydive Atlanta said the accident was caused by a parachute malfunction. The company says they are working with the FAA to investigate the fatal accident. CBS News has contacted Skydive Atlanta and local law enforcement for more information.
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