Sunday, March 9, 2014

Airplane Hits Skydiver In Midair, Everyone Somehow Survives

One way to flip out!

"The Polk County Sheriff's Office says the pilot, 87-year-old Sharon Trembley, a World War II veteran, was doing touch-and-goes in his private Cessna at the South Lakeland Airport; that's when a plane touches down briefly then takes off again.

During his third pass, the passenger side wing of his plane clipped a skydiver's parachute, cutting the chute and tossing the skydiver into the air about 75-feet above the ground.

"I have never seen anything like this and this is the last thing I thought I'd see today," said Tim Telford, who took pictures of the midair collision as it happened.

The skydiver, 49-year-old John Frost of Gainesville, was flung to the earth. The plane nose-dived into the ground.

"I thought they were both seriously hurt. We rushed over there," said Paul Fuller, one of Trembly's friends who was also watching from the ground. "He's a pretty good pilot. He's been flying all of his life, probably 60 some-odd years."

Both men were taken to the hospital. Neither was seriously injured."


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