You may have heard about the mid-air collision between two light aircraft filled with skydivers over Wisconsin last weekend. Video of the collision is now available, filmed by at least two of the parachutists using helmet-mounted cameras. It's amazing footage.
Definitely a constipation-curing moment, I'd say!
Peter
Is it common for the pilot of skydiver carrying aircraft to wear a parachute?
ReplyDeleteIf it isn't, I'll bet it shortly will be. Still, tough to exit a plane that has lost a complete wing, as they tend to spin up, generating significant g-forces on any occupants.
The lower plane seems to be in the upper pilots blind spot. I'm guessing he lost track of the lower plane while distracted by his own jumpers. Pretty much the same for the other one, hidden by his own wing. Who gets the fault? Which one was changing altitude?
Lucky skydivers, in this case. They don't always make it out, when disaster strikes.
In the clubs I flew for, and shared airports with, it was 50-50. If more than one plane was up at a time, most pilots wore chutes. I tended to, but I also flew gliders and did some aerobatics, so I was used to being in a chute. Now, how I would have gotten out of some of those planes in an emergency, chute or no chute, remained to be seen.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
News reports indicate that the guardian angels of all involved are now requesting a week's leave to recover their calm...
ReplyDeleteHope none of those involved buy lottery tickets, they burned all their luck surviving that!