Jeff Sands, 49, of Longmont (CO) was killed Saturday, along with the owner of the Pitts S-2B, Thomas Bullington, 57, of Boulder (CO), when the Pitts, for reasons yet unknown, crashed near the Vance Brand airport in Longmont.

Sands was well-known through the skydiving community, as an expert with over 4000 jumps. He was best-known locally as the founder of Mile-Hi Skydiving Center, an eight-year-old, extremely active mecca for those who want to try skydiving, but prefer tandem jumps, his specialty.

He is also well-known as "the guy who jumped into the closing ceremonies for the Bolder Boulder" foot race. [The photo below is credited to Jeff, at picturelongmont.com --ed.]

He was most-recently part of the record-breaking 300-diver December jump in December.

Bullington was working on his acro license, according to a Rocky Mountain News report that cited airport manager Tim Barth. A friend who worked on the Pitts called him, "a doggone good pilot."

The Rocky's report concludes: "On Sunday, Bullington's hangar was covered with flowers... 'Obviously, he had an effect on a lot of people.'"

**   Report created 4/28/2003   Record 16  **
IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 399DB        Make/Model: S-2B      Description: PITTS S-2B
  Date: 04/26/2003     Time: 1815
  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
  City: BOULDER   State: CO   Country: US
DESCRIPTION
  ACFT, PERFORMING AEROBATICS,  CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES SE OF LONGMONT AIRPORT, TWO PERSONS ON BOARD SUFFERED FATAL INJURIES, ACFT WAS DESTROYED,  BOULDER, CO
INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   2
                 # Crew:  1     Fat:   1     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   1     Fat:   1     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
WEATHER: BJC METAR 261745Z 03006KT 15SM SCT150 BKN220 19/M02 A2974
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Maneuver      Operation: General Aviation
  Departed: BOULDER, CO                 Dep Date: 04/26/2003   Dep. Time: 1600
  Destination: BOULDER, CO              Flt Plan: NONE         Wx Briefing: N
  Last Radio Cont: UNK
  Last Clearance: UNK
  FAA FSDO: DENVER, CO  (NM03)                    Entry date: 04/28/2003