Skydivers in Wisconsin who had been out for a recreational jump ended up dropping to a rescue. A Skydive Milwaukee plane was preparing for an afternoon of jumps Sunday when its occupants watched a small aircraft bank, vanish behind trees, and fail to reappear. Realizing they'd likely seen a crash near East Troy, three veteran skydivers—two of them former paramedics—parachuted down directly to the crash site in a cornfield, the Guardian reports. Their pilot reported the crash, telling controllers, "I can drop a load of skydivers right over them to potentially help aid."
They used their medical training to stabilize a woman with a serious head injury until EMTs arrived. All four people aboard the 1961 Beechcraft Debonair survived. Three were hospitalized and one was treated at the scene. "We all looked at each other and said, 'Did we just see a plane crash?" John Bechtel tells WISN. "The timing couldn't have been any better. Had we left five minutes earlier, we wouldn't have seen it. If we left 15 minutes later, we wouldn't have been able to get there to assist," he says. "I'm just glad that we were able to do what we could and get in and help."
Bechtel says he's been skydiving for more than 30 years, but this was his first time jumping out for an emergency. Skydive Milwaukee said the crash site was difficult to reach by road. "We're grateful they were able to help when they were needed," the organization said in a statement. The cause of the crash is being investigated. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary report that "engine issues" were likely to blame, People reports.
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