Daily Mail
FLORIDA-This is the incredible moment a skydiver was hit by a light aircraft flown by an elderly man, causing a crash that both walked away from alive.
A light aircraft can be seen crashing into the skydiver, dragging hm through the air and crashing in images taken by an amateur photographer and distributed by the AP. John Frost was just about to touch down after his skydive when he was hit by the light aircraft flown by 87-year-old Shannon Trembley at South Lakeland airport near Tampa.
The Cessna light aircraft, then lost control and nosedived on the grass runway as Frost was catapulted through the air. The dramatic set of pictures show Frost nearly on the ground as the aircraft makes contact with his parachute strings. The 49-year-old from Gainsville was then pulled backwards as his parachute got wrapped around the wing of Trembley’s plane.
As the small aircraft wheeled around and nosedived onto the runway, Frost was launched into the air.
Fortunately neither the skydiver or pilot were seriously injured by the impact. Frost has already been released from hospital, but Trembley was being kept in for observation. Trembley’s wife, Dorothy, said her husband was having trouble speaking after cracking his trachea, and needed five stitches in his chin after the crash. Her husband, an experienced pilot who has been flying since 1946, tried desperately to get out of Frost’s path, but his wing clipped the parachute lines.
‘He was coming in for a landing and the sky diver came down on the runway. He was afraid he was going to hit the sky diver,’ she told the Orlando Sentinel. Tim Telford, who took the photos, said he sensed something bad was going to happen when he heard the plane coming in as skydivers were about to land. He grabbed his camera and caught the dramatic collision, saying he was just relieved everyone survived.
‘Both these guys walked away unscathed, a scratch here, a bruise there. Both were just happy to be here today,’ he told Fox 13. The 87-year-old pilot had been doing takeoff and landing exercises at the Mulberry airport, which is also popular with skydivers, just before the collision, according to Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Trembley should have been aware of the skydivers who were coming in to land at the airport, police said. The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating the crash.