In the "couldn't have happened to a better set of people" department…
Fifteen people have escaped unharmed in the US state of Indiana after a sky-diving plane lost power 7,000ft (2,100m) from the ground.
The pilot told the 14 skydivers on board to jump to safety, then crash-landed the plane.
And the pilot was un-injured, according to the AP story. From Skydiving plane fails at 7,000ft, BBC. The website of the company in question even asks “Want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?” making one less joke for us to tell here.
How refreshing. Not one mention of “miracles”, “luck”, or “god was with us” in either article.
I would like to see more of these comments:
Refreshing indeed….
Actually, most jumpers – especially at places that aren’t “tandem factories” (tons of instructors, only there to get the money from people who want to do it just once) tend to take the “any landing we can walk away from…” attitude – and give the credit for walking away to the pilot, their instructors, and their packers. The thing you rarely hear about is that when one of us has a malfunction upon opening and has to pull the reserve, a jumper will often lose between $50 and $1500+ worth of equipment, so a totaled plane (especially a c208) with 15 survivors is basically a wash.
As for “perfectly good airplane”, I have as yet to get out of one at the top without thinking “glad I don’t have to land in this thing!”
USPA# D25732, 495 jumps (and yes, you only needed 200 for a D when I got mine. These days it’s 1000.)