Family remembers Arizona businessman killed in Moab BASE jump accident

Danny Kregle went to Mineral Bottom for a jump he had wanted for years, and instead died Sunday in a tandem BASE jump with guide Andy Lewis in remote Grand County. His family said the 68-year-old Arizona businessman was living out the same appetite for adrenaline that shaped much of his life, and they are grieving his loss without anger or plans for legal action.

Kregle’s wife, Kelley, had been married to him for 43 years. His two daughters and granddaughter were part of the life he built around Mesa, Arizona, where he ran an HVAC business and also helped launch a nonprofit gym. Family members said he had more than 100 solo skydives, a racecar-driving background, and a habit of chasing speed and spectacle, from boxing and traveling to magic tricks with his granddaughter.

The crash also shows how quickly Moab’s air-sport scenes can turn into a rescue operation. The Grand County Sheriff’s Office said dispatch was notified on June 14, and deputies, Grand County Search and Rescue, Grand County EMS, and two Intermountain helicopters responded to the remote scene near Mineral Bottom. In a tandem BASE jump, the passenger is harnessed to an experienced jumper and the pair descends together on one parachute, a setup that still depends on weather, landing conditions, and split-second decisions in terrain where help is not close by.

That terrain is part of what keeps drawing jumpers to Moab. The red-rock cliffs around Mineral Bottom have long attracted BASE athletes from around the world, and Lewis had been running commercial tandem operations in the area since 2018 through BASE Jump Moab. Just weeks before Kregle’s jump, the BLM Moab Field Office issued an environmental assessment and decision record on May 12 authorizing commercial tandem BASE jumping at two locations in Grand County, putting a formal framework around guided jumps on BLM-managed land.

Friends and fellow athletes have remembered Lewis as a fearless adventurer and motivator, and local coverage has described the recovery landscape around Mineral Bottom as technically difficult, often requiring aircraft or rope teams. Kregle’s family said they sympathize with Lewis’s family as well. For Moab’s adventure community, the fatal jump is a stark reminder that the same remote country that makes the sport possible can also make every mistake, and every response, far harder.