Tragedy Averted in New Zealand Plane Crash
A plane in New Zealand with 13 skydivers onboard had engine failure just minutes after take-off, forcing everyone to jump off the plane before it burst into flames and plunged into a lake.
"(I) saw everyone deploy out of the plane and then next minute it was in the lake... parachuting down slowly," an anonymous witness said. "The fact that anyone survived is amazing."
All 13 people aboard the plane landed safely. The passengers were all overseas tourists who had each been assigned an instructor for a tandem dive, according to Roy Clements, the chief executive of plane operator Skydive Taupo.
According to the National Post, the instructors were already wearing parachutes when the plane went into failure. Each instructor needed to hastily clip their passengers harness with four attachments before leaping from the plane.
The pilot was reportedly the last to jump after he made sure everyone else was safely off the plane.
