Only One Mistake, 16 Skydivers Lives Lost "Lake Erie skydiving disaster"

Lake Erie skydiving disaster.

Now we will know about the terrible accident that the world knows as the "Lake Erie Disaster". In this accident, about 16 skydivers died and the incident heard from the mouths of the two survivors shook the whole world. Basically, "Lake Erie" is the fourth largest and eleventh largest lake in North America. There is a small airfield called Ortner Airport 13 kilometers south of this lake.

On August 27, 1967, 30 skydivers arrived at this air field because they were offered a free flight. The B-25 bomber plane used in the nuclear bomb attack had offered this offer to the skydivers. And the nuclear bomb attack was carried out. Who wouldn't want to skydive from the plane?" That's why countless skydivers gather together for this free dive. And when the skydivers start boarding the plane one by one for the free flight, Then seen that not everyone has a seat on the plane.For this reason, only 20 people were selected for this free flight. Only 20 people were selected based on their experience and skills in skydiving.

The 10 skydivers who were not selected were of course very sad. But they still did not know how lucky they were that the pilot had saved their lives that day by not selecting them. The plan was that the Bomber B 25 would take off from Ortner Airport, rise to an altitude of 20,000 feet, and then 18 skydivers would jump from the plane from there, and then the plane would rise to an altitude of 30,000 feet and the remaining two divers would also jump from the sky.

The plan was for skydivers to land at Ortner Airport with the help of parachutes from an altitude of twenty thousand feet. Although the bomber B-25 could not take off in the morning due to bad weather, the bomber B-25 took off in the afternoon. All the skydivers on the plane were very excited.

Because they had the opportunity to get a free flight, and on top of that, they were going to experience jumping out of a plane carrying a nuclear bomb for the first time in their lives. A few minutes after the plane took off, a small plane called Cessna 108 also took off from there. This plane took off to video the skydivers jumping from 12,000 feet above.

Due to bad weather, the two planes slowly flew towards their destination. Both planes were in contact with the control tower to reach their destination on time. The control tower was continuously informing the two planes of their location. Finally, the Bomber B-25 plane reached an altitude of 20,000 feet within an hour. At that time, the Bomber B-25 informed the control tower of their location via radio. At that time, there was no advanced GPS technology either, so even when the weather was bad, the planes had to seek help from the control tower.

The bomber B-25 plane informed the control tower that it was at an altitude of 9 kilometers from Ortner Airport. According to this message, the control tower understood that the plane had reached a place called Dropzin, and one minute later, the Cessna 108 airplane contacted the control tower and said that they could not find the B-25 plane. Therefore, the location of the bomber B-25 was informed to Cessna 108 from the control tower.

Control tower told Cessna 108 that they are 9 kilometers behind the Bomber B 25 plane. That means, according to the map, if Bomber B 25 is 9 kilometers away from Ortner Airport, then Cessna 108 was also 9 kilometers away from Bomber B 25 and 18 kilometers away from Ortner Airport. Bomber B 25 again asks the control tower about their position. The control tower informed that the Bomber B 25 plane has already reached an altitude of 20 thousand feet from Ortner Airport and the control tower informed Bomber B 25 plane that now 18 skydivers can jump.

And within that, that small mistake occurs. For that small mistake, the 16 skydivers were died. "But until then, nobody knew."

 the temperature at such a height was minus 30 degrees for this reason, all skydivers had heavy jumpsuits on their bodies. Then 18 people jumped one by one from the plane so that 18 people could stay together side by side holding hands.

After jumping, all the skydivers saw a thick layer of clouds below them. They were all enjoying the free driving in the sky And they hope that their parachutes would open at the right time. But as soon as they crossed the thick curtain of clouds, their excitement turned into a nightmare. They were surprised to find that there was no soil beneath them, but rather the deep, vast waters of Lake Erie spread out limitlessly. At this time, their altitude was about three thousand feet. Then everyone turned on their respective parachute switches. The intention was to float on a parachute and somehow cross the water boundary so that they could land on land. But unfortunately! The place where they landed was 10 kilometers away from the ground.

So, the skydivers thought that they would swim until someone came to help them after falling into the lake water. But they could not swim at all because of the layers of warm clothes they were wearing to protect themselves from the cold.

However, only two of the divers had taken off their shoes, warm clothes, and other unnecessary heavy objects from their bodies before landing in the water.

To find out what really happened that day, a later investigation committee was also formed. It was investigated that where the B-25 plane dropped skydivers and who was the real culprit? The air traffic controller said that when the skydivers were dropped, they were over Ortner Airport and 10 kilometers away from Lake Erie.

However, after jumping, the skydivers fell into Lake Erie due to strong winds. But if this is true, then the skydivers were blown away by the wind for a total of 20 kilometers, which is almost impossible. Investigation revealed that, according to the wind speed and other factors that day, the skydivers could only travel a maximum of 5 kilometers.

The pilot of the bomber plane later told them that they had been given the wrong location from the control tower that day. Basically, the shift of the control tower officers had changed at that time. The shift of the one who was there first changed later and the second controller gave the pilots the location of Cessna 108. When the bomber plane was told that they were above Ortner Airport. But, The Cessna airplane was actually over the Ortner Airport at that time. The pilot and skydivers were also at fault. They went against aviation law and jumped out of the plane without seeing the target. Later, the court ruled that the bomber plane pilot was responsible for the death of 16 skydivers. According to the law, their license was canceled for life and a new law was made that skydivers would jump out of the plane 50 kilometers away from the water. Now you must understand how a small mistake can cause a terrible disaster.