Libertarian candidate dies while skydiving

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Spencer Garrett, the Libertarian candidate last fall in the race for the 8th Congressional District seat won by Republican Dave Reichert, died Saturday in a skydiving accident in Snohomish.

An experienced skydiver, Garrett, 52, of Kirkland and one other skydiver took off from Harvey Field for Garrett’s 183rd jump with Skydive Snohomish.

Elaine Sutton, a spokeswoman for Skydive Snohomish, said Garrett left the airplane about 11:15 a.m. over a landing area designated for students and beginners. Garrett’s equipment operated perfectly, and his chute was fully open when he ran into trouble.

As he approached the landing area about two miles southeast of Harvey Field near Old Snohomish-Monroe Road, Sutton said, Garrett apparently made a sudden turn too close to the ground, which hurled his body to a grassy field. He died almost immediately, she said.

“He was about to enter his landing pattern and needed to make a left-hand turn to get across some power lines to enter the landing zone,” Sutton said.

Investigators speculated that Garrett encountered sudden turbulence that sped his descent. He then made a 90-degree turn to the right and catapulted to a grassy field before he could right himself.

“His parachute did not have the opportunity to recover to level flight before he hit the ground,” she said.

A board member with Seattle Skydivers, Garrett was just 10 jumps away from reaching the third of four possible levels of licensing for skydiving, Sutton said. His first jump was in September 2003.

“He was a very conservative canopy pilot and a very accurate person on landings, always,” she said. “He never had a previous skydiving accident.”

Even so, she said, it appears Garrett could have avoided the accident if he had adhered to his training. He was licensed and trained to perform evasive maneuvers that should have prevented his death.

“He probably panicked and went against his training,” she said.

A friend of Garrett’s, Sutton said he was a frequent skydiver at Harvey Field who was well-liked and admired by many of his fellow skydivers. She said he will be in the thoughts of many Saturday when Skydive Snohomish hosts its annual Safety Day event at Harvey Field.

“He was a member of our family,” she said.

Garrett’s death marked the first skydiving fatality at Harvey Field in 15 years and the first fatality in the history of Skydive Snohomish.