The already amazing story from over the weekend about how two small planes carrying skydivers collided over Wisconsin, but all 11 people aboard the aircraft survived, now has some amazing photos and video to go with it.
NBC-TV's The Today Show landed the exclusive rights to the helmet cam images captured during the collision, the fire that broke out aboard one of the planes and the skydivers' safe trips to the ground.
As NBC explains, four jumpers were outside the door of the lead plane when the aircraft touched. The skydivers aboard that lead plane were tossed into the sky. Their pilot, who was wearing a chute, managed to safely get out of the plane before it crashed.
The other plane was less seriously damaged. Still, pilot Blake Wedan told the five jumpers he had aboard to get out. Then he was able to land the plane safely despite damage to its propeller and one wing.
We'll embed one of Today's reports so that you can see the dramatic footage and hear from the skydivers. The show has much more here.
We also want to take special note of this part of Today's coverage:
"[Matt] asked the group who among them would jump from a plane again. Every single diver raised their hands.
" 'This is just who we are,' said [Barry] Sinnex.
" 'I'm more afraid of spiders,' said [Lanaya ] Bonogofsky."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
