Skydiving Plane Crashes in Tennessee with 20 Aboard; No Fatalities Reported
A skydiving expedition turned chaotic on Sunday when a twin-engine aircraft carrying 20 people crashed at Tullahoma Regional Airport in Tennessee. Miraculously, all passengers and crew survived.
According to local and federal officials, the De Havilland DH-6 Twin Otter aircraft went down shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT) in Tullahoma, a town located about 75 miles southeast of Nashville.
“There were no fatalities,” confirmed Lyle Russell, a spokesman for the City of Tullahoma, in a statement to AFP. “Three individuals were airlifted to hospitals with serious injuries, while another was transported by ambulance. Several others sustained minor injuries and were treated on site by first responders.”
Russell emphasized that no damage occurred to airport infrastructure and no ground injuries were reported. “Fortunately, the crash did not affect any surrounding structures or personnel on the ground,” he said.
Images released by the Tennessee Highway Patrol showed the white-and-blue aircraft mangled in a grassy field, its nose buried and its tail severed from the fuselage, with emergency vehicles surrounding the wreckage.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. Tennessee Highway Patrol officers are assisting local authorities in securing the scene and supporting the ongoing inquiry.
The incident adds to a growing list of non-fatal but serious aviation accidents involving recreational flights in the U.S. as the summer skydiving season ramps up.
