A group of professional skydivers took an extraordinary route to an emergency after witnessing a small plane disappear behind trees near East Troy Municipal Airport in Wisconsin, as reported [1] by Fox News.
They jumped from their own aircraft and became the first people to reach the crash site.
The men, all experienced skydivers with Skydive Milwaukee, were preparing for a jump Sunday when they noticed the small plane flying nearby, according to the Town of East Troy Police Department.
John Bechtel, one of the skydivers, told local outlet WSMV that the plane appeared to be flying in an unusual manner. The group then watched as the aircraft vanished from view behind a tree line.
“He kind of banked up a little bit, and then, he disappeared behind the trees,” Bechtel recalled.
The skydivers waited for the plane to become visible again, but it never did. That alarming absence quickly prompted the group to question whether they had just witnessed an aircraft go down.
“We were all sitting there waiting for him to show back up somewhere, and [he] never did,” he added.
“We all just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Did we just see a plane crash?’”
The plane, which had one engine, had crashed in a cornfield near the airport. Four people were aboard the aircraft at the time, according to the report.
Rather than remain in the air and wait, the skydivers quickly asked their pilot to identify a safe location where they could jump.
Their goal was to reach the people aboard the crashed plane and provide whatever help they could.
Air traffic control informed the pilot that the decision to release the skydivers over the area was his to make. The pilot responded that he planned to drop a couple of the jumpers immediately.
The experienced skydivers then left their aircraft near the scene and descended toward the cornfield. Their airborne response allowed them to arrive at the wreckage before emergency service workers could reach it.
One of the jumpers was a former paramedic. He treated a person suffering from a serious head injury and remained there to provide assistance until emergency service workers arrived at the crash site.
All four people who had been aboard the plane survived. Bechtel said the timing of the skydivers’ flight and their decision to jump “couldn’t have been any better.”
“Had we left five minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have seen it,” Bechtel told WSMV.
The group also could have missed the opportunity to arrive first if its flight had begun later.
That narrow window placed the skydivers in the right position to witness the crash and quickly reach the people aboard.
“Had we left 15 minutes later, we wouldn’t have been able to get there first and assist.”
Bechtel said he had never before jumped from a plane to respond to an emergency.
Despite his extensive skydiving experience, the leap near East Troy Municipal Airport marked a first for him under such urgent circumstances.
“I’m just glad that we were able to do what we were able to do and get in and help ,” Bechtel said, per WSMV.
He also made clear that he would not hesitate to respond again if someone needed assistance. “To be able to do this and to be able to help others in need — I would absolutely do that in a heartbeat.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused the plane to crash in the cornfield.
Fox News Digital reached out to the organization seeking additional information about the cause. They also contacted Skydive Milwaukee for comment.
The police account, the report from WSMV, and Bechtel’s description detailed how a routine planned jump became an emergency response that put experienced skydivers at the wreckage before other responders.