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A group of professional skydivers who witnessed a plane crash took an extraordinary route to the scene — jumping from their own aircraft to reach the victims.
The men, all experienced skydivers with Skydive Milwaukee, were preparing for a jump when they spotted a small plane near East Troy Municipal Airport on Sunday, according to the Town of East Troy Police Department.
John Bechtel, one of the skydivers, told local outlet WSMV the plane appeared to be flying unusually before disappearing behind a line of trees.
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“He kind of banked up a little bit, and then, he disappeared behind the trees,” Bechtel recalled.
“We were all sitting there waiting for him to show back up somewhere, and [he] never did,” he added. “We all just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Did we just see a plane crash?’”
The single-engine plane had crashed in a cornfield near the airport.
The group quickly asked their pilot to identify a safe place for them to jump so that they could help.
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Air traffic control told the pilot it was his call whether to drop the skydivers over the area.
“It is your discretion if you want to drop jumpers over the area,” air traffic control told the pilot, according to WSMV.
“Yes, I am going to drop a couple of them. Yeah, we are going to drop ‘em right now,” the pilot reportedly replied.
The skydivers were the first to reach the crash site.
They alerted emergency crews.
One of the jumpers, a former paramedic, treated a person with a serious head injury until emergency service workers arrived.
All four people aboard the plane survived, with Bechtel saying that the timing “couldn’t have been any better.”
“Had we left five minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have seen it,” Bechtel told WSMV.
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“Had we left 15 minutes later, we wouldn’t have been able to get there first and assist.”
Bechtel said it was the first time he had ever jumped out of a plane to respond to an emergency situation.
“I’m just glad that we were able to do what we were able to do and get in and help,” Bechtel said, per WSMV.
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He added, “To be able to do this and to be able to help others in need — I would absolutely do that in a heartbeat.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Skydive Milwaukee for comment.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause of the crash.
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Fox News Digital also reached out to the organization for details on the cause of the crash.
Read the full article here
