UPDATE: Springs man dies in Montana skydiving accident

Garl Michael “Mike” Newby, a Colorado Springs man who loved skydiving, died Wednesday in a parachuting accident during an annual skydiving festival in northwestern Montana.

Newby, 57, died Wednesday afternoon near Marion after his main parachute became entangled with another man’s chute and he did not have enough time to deploy his reserve chute after he removed his main chute.

Newby had completed more than 4,000 jumps all over the world, said his brother, Keith Newby.

Mike Newby was a supervisor for the Colorado Department of Transportation and stationed in Glenwood Springs for the last five years, but would come to the Springs every month or so.

He always took an extra day to go skydiving in Longmont, Keith Newby said.

Mike Newby’s closest friends were skydiving buddies, who were calling Keith to offer condolences all day Thursday.

“This is what he lived for,” Keith Newby said. “As unfortunate as it was, it was probably how he would like to go.”

Officials said the man who jumped with Mike Newby was able to remove his main chute and deploy his reserve parachute, according to the Flathead County, Mont, sheriff’s report.

Fred Sand, owner of Skydive Lost Prairie, described Newby as a “very, very experienced skydiver.”

“He had probably been coming up here for 10 plus years if not more,” said Sand, whose company hosts the Skydive Lost Prairie Boogie, a 10-day festival that is one of the largest of its kind in the nation.

Newby jumped at 13,000 feet with a group of other skydivers, said Sheriff Mike Meehan.

They came together in a falling formation, then broke away to deploy their parachutes.

Skydive Lost Prairie has not been immune to accidents. A May 12, 2007, plane crash killed all five aboard, including the pilot, two instructors and an engaged couple from Great Falls.

In April 2009, the pilot of a small plane that was dropping skydivers near Kalispell was forced to make a crash landing at Lost Prairie’s airstrip when the aircraft lost the right side of its landing gear. No one was injured.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.