Three skydivers jump to a plane crash 3,000 feet below. One was thankfully a paramedic
The skydivers saw the white plane disappear behind the trees and realized it had crashed
If you saw a plane going down, how would you react? For three professional skydivers — John Bechtel, Sean Plastine, and Kevin Flynn — the decision was easy. On September 27, 20226, the men boarded a Cessna Caravan at a Wisconsin airport, expecting a jump from around 14,000 feet. But before their plane took off, they saw a white Beechcraft Debonair flying behind some trees. A few moments later, the plane suddenly disappeared, and they realized it must have crashed. Worried, the pilot, Jonah Johnson, 24, decided to intervene. He flew over the area and found the crashed plane in a cornfield. Without a second thought, the skydivers jumped off from 3,000 feet above the ground and landed right next to it, according to The Washington Post. An audio conversation between Johnson and air traffic control, shared on Instagram by Wairworthy (@wairworthy), has since received over 360,000 views.
A midair shock
Bechtel, Plastine, and Flynn thought they were going to do a routine jump during the weekend, but little did they know things would go downhill so quickly. Just before the boys took off, they noticed another plane dive beneath the tree line. Bechtel described what he saw to WSMV: "He (the plane) kind of banked up a little bit, and then he disappeared behind the trees. We were all sitting there waiting for him to show back up somewhere, and [he] never did. We all just kind of looked at each other like, 'Did we just see a plane crash?'" Surprisingly, the boys immediately decided to intervene and help the passengers. "There really wasn’t much of a discussion about it. It was just, 'People need help. Okay, let’s go,'" Plastine added.
A timely intervention
As per the audio, Johnson asked air traffic control if he could unload passengers (Bechtel, Plastine, and Flynn) from his own plane to help the crash victims. He said, "I can drop a load of skydivers right over them [crash] to potentially help aid." The controller told Johnson to drop them off at their discretion. There was no hesitation; with Johnson and air traffic control's help, the three men landed safely in a bean field next to the crash to provide first aid to the four victims. Luckily, three of the passengers were uninjured, but one woman had a head injury. Flynn, a former paramedic, helped her while they were waiting for emergency responders. Plastine ran towards the road to guide the paramedics to the crash site. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration reported an engine failure that caused the crash, but a deeper investigation is being conducted.
Quick response
Emergencies demand quick thinking and even quicker action, and most Americans say they're ready to act. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) national poll found that 91% of Americans trained in emergency response skills said they were ready to help in any medical crisis while waiting for the emergency responders to arrive. Surprisingly, 68% of those with no training were also willing to provide help in such situations. While Flynn was a former paramedic, Bechtel and Plastine also showed their willingness to help. All three men made a heroic decision when they jumped off a plane to help rescue victims from a crash. Bechtel said, "Had we left five minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have seen it. Had we left 15 minutes later, we wouldn’t have been able to get there first and assist."
'Well done, boys'
Netizens praised the skydivers in the comments, congratulating them for their timely intervention. @jennybee_slo wrote, "That’s so coincidental. So glad they happened to be in the neighborhood and could help out! That’s cool!" @mrlunkerchaser added, "Imagine, you’re having a bad day. You just wrecked the plane and boom, skydivers come rescue you."
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