The incident started as the plane stared to clime towards the jump altitude. It was only a few minutes after take off that the plane started to lose power. At 7000ft thick smoke and oil started to pour from the engine, covering the windscreen. With his vision impaired, the pilot managed to level the plane at 5000ft, with no thought for his own safety, the pilot told the skydivers to jump.
All the skydivers got to the ground safely, but could only watch as the plane made its decent.
Amazingly the pilot managed to find the runway and get the plane on the ground, but over shot the end of the runway. The plane flipped over and ended up on its back in the middle of a cornfield. To everyone’s relief the pilot was able to crawl from the wreckage with only minor injuries.
Bob Dougherty, the owner of SkyDive Greensburg, paid tribute to the pilot for getting the plane to the ground.
“He just ran out of runway, but he was able to put the plane in a place where nobody would get hurt,”
Understandably, Mr Dougherty was very proud every one concerned with incident, “15 people walked away because everybody performed professionally,” he said.
For Fourteen skydivers to jump to safety at 5000ft, the pilot to crash-land the plan, and everyone to walk away, is a pure miracle.
