The odds were one in millions that a sky diver hurtling Earthward at about 100 mph would collide with a small airplane a mile high in a cloudless sky.
Veteran sky diver Alfred Peters tried to avoid the plane but clipped its tail with his ankle, sending it into a spin and crash. All four people aboard were killed.Peters survived the crash Sunday with a broken ankle and a lifetime of fear.
"I don't think he'll be doing it again," said Peters' wife, Joyce.
"All he keeps talking about is seeing that plane coming at him," she said. "He tried to get out of the way as best he could, but there wasn't much he could do."
Killed were Elliot Klein, 49, of Rhinebeck, N.Y., the pilot of the single-engine plane; his 18-year-old son, Jonas, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; fellow MIT student Christina Park, 18, of Auburn, Wash.; and Jean Kimball, 45, of Pine Plains, N.Y.
The accident happened as the plane was flying at about 120 mph 7,000 feet over Northampton Airport, en route to Boston from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The students were returning to school.
Peters, a former Army paratrooper who had logged 37 sport jumps in the past year, told authorities he leaped from another single-engine plane at about 8,000 feet. Within moments, he saw the Piper heading straight at him, according to Jeff Guzzetti, a National Transportation Safety Board inspector.
Peters, 51, of Westfield, lost a boot and flipped head over heels, but managed to open his parachute at about 4,000 feet and watched the plane spiral to the ground. He declined to speak to reporters.
The Piper's wreckage lay Monday in woods one mile from the airport.
Investigators said they don't know why the pilots were unaware of each other.