I've always agreed with that particular complaint about skydiving, never personally seeing the need for that much "excitement" just for fun. But fourteen skydivers in Indiana got to experience the thrill of jumping out of a perfectly bad airplane – one that was on its way to a crash landing.
Fourteen sky divers were forced to jump out of their disabled plane and parachute to safety before it crash landed after developing mechanical problems over Indiana.
The plane malfunctioned at 7,000 feet, its engine cutting out as it climbed and causing oil to spray on the windscreen and limit the pilot's visibility.
He lost manual control but, as the plane levelled off at 5,000 feet, the sky jumpers were able to jump out.
All of them landed safely, including two sky divers who were jumping for the first time.
The pilot also apparently survived, after trying to land the crippled plane on a too-short runway. But he managed to keep anyone else on the ground from being hurt.
I guess they were smart to be wearing parachutes after all.
There’s no such thing as a perfectly good airplane.
Don’t knock it till you try it. AIRBORNE! The funny thing? After I got out of the military, I became quite uncomfortable flying without a parachute.