Free Republic

Fourteen people were injured after a skydiving plane crashed at the Cross Keys Airport in Williamstown, N.J. The Federal Aviation Administration said that the plane went off the end of the runway while departing the airport on Wednesday evening, WPVI reported. The small airport is in a populated area with neighborhoods, stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and churches. The pilot reported engine trouble before the plane crashed into a tree near the runway, investigators said. Andrew Halter with Gloucester County Emergency Management said that rescue crews found extensive damage to the plane and many victims covered in jet fuel when they...

The L-410 plane crashed around 9.20 am local time during a flight over the Republic of Tatarstan, Russian officials said. Six people rescued from the wreckage were described as being in a “very serious condition”,. The Tass news agency said the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the local airport. Images issued by the emergency ministry showed the aircraft split in half with a dented nose. According to Russian media, the plane was built-in 1987 and was owned by the government-linked Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation and Navy, a sports and defence organisation. The head of the...

A plane crash has killed five members of a group of skydivers in northwestern Montana in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle said the plane went down shortly after takeoff, then burned. The pilot of the Cessna 182 operated by Skydive Lost Prairie was carrying two skydiving instructors and two trainees to jumps, said Michael Morrill, a manager of the company. Morrill said the plane took off in clear weather. Names of those killed were not released immediately. All were from Montana, Morrill said. Skydiving is a relatively small sport in the state, with perhaps 60 or...

Previously unseen video footage of a skydiver moments before he plunged 13,000-feet to his death in suspicious circumstances is being shown on television. Army cadet Stephen Hilder, 20, appeared pensive as he travelled by bus to what was to be his final jump at Hibaldstow Airfield, north Lincolnshire, on July 4. Detectives launched a murder inquiry after discovering that the cord on his main parachute and the strapping on his reserve chute had been deliberately severed. Other video footage to be broadcast on tonight's BBC1 Crimewatch UK programme shows Mr Hilder giving a thumbs-up shortly before jumping from the plane....