Skydivers literally jump into action to help survivors of plane crash

EAST TROY, Wis. (WISN) - A group of Wisconsin skydivers who saw a small plane go down rushed to the crash site and literally jumped into action to help the survivors.

John Bechtel has spent the last three decades skydiving across Wisconsin, but his jump Sunday afternoon was unlike anything he’s ever done before.

“That is my first time jumping out for someone else’s emergency,” Bechtel said.

Bechtel and two other experienced jumpers with Skydive Milwaukee were preparing for their day in the air when they noticed something seemed off with a plane near the East Troy Municipal Airport.

“He 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 never did. We all just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Did we just see a plane crash?’” Bechtel said.

That’s when the brave group asked their pilot to find a safe spot for them to jump, so they could help the victims. It turned out the single-engine plane had crashed in a cornfield.

“It is your discretion if you want to drop jumpers over the area,” air traffic control told the pilot.

“Yes, I am going to drop a couple of them. Yeah, we are going to drop ‘em right now,” the pilot replied.

Heroic efforts from the skydivers, who were first on the scene, included notifying emergency crews of the crash. One of the jumpers is a former paramedic, and he helped one person with a serious head injury before EMS arrived.

“The timing couldn’t have been any better. 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,” Bechtel said.

All four people on board the crashed plane survived and are expected to be OK.

“I’m just glad that we were able to do what we were able to do and get in and help,” Bechtel said.

Without hesitation, he says he’d do it again if it meant saving someone’s life.

“To be able to do this and to be able to help others in need, I would absolutely do that in a heartbeat,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.