Article content continued

“We’re seeing it’s on fire and there are just parts of the airplane floating in the air with us,” he said. “We were falling faster than those parts … So the concern was we get away from the crash area.”

Mr. Robinson said the skydivers had parachutes that allowed them to steer themselves away from the debris, and toward the planned landing spot.

The pilot of Mr. Robinson’s plane ejected himself, but his emergency parachute could not be steered so he landed elsewhere. He had minor injuries and was taken to the hospital. The second pilot was able to safely land his plane at the same airport where he took off.

None of the nine experienced skydivers or two pilots sustained serious injuries and authorities still didn’t know Sunday what caused the accident.

“It was just surreal,” said Mr. Robinson, who lives north of Duluth, Minnesota.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said the lead plane broke into three parts, with debris landing on the airport property and an adjacent retail area.

Mr. Robinson said everyone involved was meeting Sunday with FAA investigators.

“We do this all the time,” Mr. Robinson said. “We just don’t know what happened for sure that caused this.”

Recently, a skydiving accident in Belgium claimed the lives of 11 people. Part of the aircraft’s wing broke minutes after the plane took off from an airfield on Oct. 19, sending the plane into a spiralling nosedive. The parachutists, nearly all between the ages of 20 and 40, were celebrating a birthday and weren’t able to jump out. The cause of that accident was being investigated.

National Post and the Associated Press