MULBERRY, FL - Our NBC News partners at WFLA are reporting two men walked away
with minor injuries after a small, private airplane collided with a
parachute worn by a skydiver over a small airstrip on Coronet
Road Saturday afternoon.
Sharon L. Trembley, 87, of Mulberry was
doing touch-and-goes in his Cessna aircraft from the South Lakeland
Airport near Mulberry about 11 a.m. when the incident occurred,
according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
During a third
pass, the right wing of the aircraft became entangled in the parachute
worn by skydiver John Stephen Frost, 49, of Gainesville as he
attempted a landing, Polk sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Eleazer said in a
news release. The strings of the parachute were cut in the collision
about 75 feet above ground.
Frost tumbled to the ground, and the airplane went into a nose dive nearby, crushing its propeller.
Both
men were taken by ambulance to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where
Frost was treated and released. Trembley was being held for observation.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Authority are investigating the incident.
