Oahu Parachute Center was relatively new to North Shore skydiving scene

The company operating the plane that crashed Friday evening at Dillingham Airfield is a relative newcomer to the skydiving scene on Oahu’s North Shore.

Oahu Parachute Center announced its launch on social media in spring 2017, and registered as a business with the state in June of that year. It is one of three skydiving tour operators at Dillingham, in addition to Skydive Hawaii, which has been in operation since 1983, and Pacific Skydiving, in operation since 1997.

The business, Oahu Parachute Center LLC, is registered to George Rivera, Rudolfo Lugo and Rubens Velasquez.

“Skydiving over Oahu in Hawaii is really a magical experience,” said the company on its website. “There really is no better place in the world to skydive. Join the thousands of people who have trusted us to help them experience Hawaii in the best way possible.”

The website said its highly qualified instructors would take care of skydivers every step of the way and get them quickly up in the air with its King Air, described as the fastest skydiving plane in Hawaii.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation confirmed that it was a Beechcraft King Air BE65-A90 that crashed at Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia shortly after takeoff on Friday.

On its Facebook and Instagram accounts, Oahu Parachute Center shared stunning photos and videos from its jumps, and recently received five-star reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor from happy customers.

The company offers tandem jumps during the day from $170 to $200, and sunset tandems for $250. But it also advertised $20 “fun jumps” for experienced skydivers on Saturdays.

In mid-March, the company posted it was holding a “Safety Day,” a day to review safety procedures with the U.S. Parachute Association. It listed a dozen staff on its website by first name, including a pilot, instructors and videographers, some of whom are among the dead.

Frank Hinshaw, owner of Skydive Hawaii, and Guy Banal, owner of Pacific Skydiving, could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Neither is offering jumps while Dillingham Airfield remains closed for investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.

“Skydiving while exciting, is a dangerous activity and like all aviation activities, can be most unforgiving,” said Skydive Hawaii on its Facebook page on Saturday. “Yesterday’s airplane tragedy with another company at our airfield is a stark reminder of how fragile and fleeting life can be. Memorial information will be provided as it becomes known.”

All three skydive companies use different aircraft and offer varying tours, but workers at the companies know one another. As soon as news of the accident spread, people were on the phone, checking on friends.

Bill Star, owner of Honolulu Soaring, a glider plane tour company in business since 1970, said he immediately made a few phone calls.

Although he did not know those who died, he said his pilots probably knew the pilot who was flying the plane that crashed.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Star. “This is just an unfortunate tragedy, with the rest of it unfolding … The investigation is going to be its own animal.”

Dillingham Airfield, which the state operates under a lease from the U.S. Army, offers an eclectic mix of skydiving tours, as well as glider plane tours, and hangars for private plane owners.