A California man who trained skydiving instructors but in unauthorized courses—with one of his trainees having died during a 2016 tandem dive with an 18-year-old high school graduate—has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Robert Allen Pooley, 49, of Acampo, was sentenced on Sept. 30 after being convicted in May of wire fraud related to unauthorized tandem skydiving instructor courses in San Joaquin County, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a statement.
Pooley obtained his tandem examiner certification in 2010 from the U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) and Uninsured United Parachute Technologies LLC (UPT), a manufacturer of tandem parachute systems, the statement said. The tandem instructor certifications Pooley issued allowed his students to perform tandem jumps with the public both in the United States and internationally….