Posted on 03/10/2014 3:59:13 AM PDT by Doogle
A skydiver and pilot have escaped with minor injuries after a mid-air collision near Tampa, Florida.
The Cessna pilot was performing take-off and landing manoeuvres at the South Lakeland Airport in Mulberry when the aircraft became entangled in the strings of the skydiver's parachute.
Photos of the accident show the aircraft's wing snagging the parachute just before the skydiver reached the ground.
The images show the skydiver, 49-year-old John Frost, being flipped over by the force of the collision before the plane crashes nose first.
The aircraft then flips upright onto its landing gear before ending up just a few feet from the skydiver.
The dramatic pictures capturing the moment of impact were taken by photographer Tim Telford.
He told US media: "I thought I'd have very exciting pics of a close flyby. Never in a million years did I think I'd see what I saw."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Saw this on FNC just now
Don’t know jack about skydiving. Do they usually land on a runway??
And the stupid skydiver’s landing zone was an air strip? Idiot.
I just saw the comments section at the article... wow, are people ignorant.
Looks like a private strip across the street from the pilot’s house ...
just once, normally...*smiles*
Oh wow. Two thankful guys, I’m sure.
maybe he forgot to wear his glasses? or forgot to check for Clearance”?
Still jumping, after all these years. I think he's more like 149 years old, though. :-)
At the end of the war he was 13?
Drafted kinda young, it seems.
looks like the little grass aerodrome near my neighborhood...there is no tower, they take up skydivers and pull gliders up into the sky....
as far as I know the skydivers don't land there, I believe in a nearby field they land...
damn...
It said that the pilot was 87.
wow! maybe they left with minor injuries, but i bet they both left with brown trousers
And the pilot had a few choice words for the stupide sky diver who destroyed is plane.
..sorry.....heard 87 typed 82
I believe this should have been the fault of the airport. When skydiving all I think normal GA operations are diverted or halted while jumping, not sure though. The only plane flying should be the jump plane.
i would tend to place blame, if any upon the pilot. he had control, and should perhaps have seen the bright red canopy approaching, adn waited a few minutes. the parachutist had only limited control....
Both of them walking away from that accident is probably a miracle.
5.56mm
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