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Dramatic skydiver crash caught on tape

Amazing video from helmet-mounted cameras captures the instant two small planes loaded with skydivers collided in midair, sending them plunging to earth 12,000 feet below.
Miraculously, all nine skydivers and both pilots were able to walk away from the harrowing ordeal – with only the pilot of a plane that lost its wing and exploded into flames suffering minor cuts.

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“The outcome for us was as good as it could be,” Mike Robinson, one of the passengers, told NBC News, which broadcast exclusive footage of the collision and its aftermath on the Today show Tuesday morning.
But one of the planes suddenly descended and banged into the other, with one losing a wing.

The force of the impact sent some of the skydivers plummeting to earth, while others scrambled to leap from their damaged aircraft.
The pilot of the plane that lost the wing escaped through an emergency chute and opened his parachute, while the other pilot managed to maintain control of his craft and land it safely at Richard Bong Airport in Douglas County.

“The sun was just getting ready to set, it was our last load of the day,” Robinson, 64, told NBC . “It was just a perfect time to be up in the sky.”
Video shot by Amy Olson, and shows three fellow divers on a step outside the cockpit hatch when the plane below appears in the frame.

From below, skydiver John Rodrigo’s camera captures the planes colliding and the images of the other skydivers – their parachutes open – gently floating earthward.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash.