Skydiver stuck in tree rescued by first responders

ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - First responders in Orange County had to rescue a man after a midair skydiving collision left him stuck in a tree towering nearly 100 feet above the ground.

“Apparently, what had happened is the two had collided in the air, one had come down on the side of Route 20, and the other one had come down in the top of a tree on the back of a farm on Mt. Sharon Road,” Assistant Chief of the Orange Volunteer Fire Company said.

Firefighters were dispatched around 4:40 p.m. on Sunday, August 18, to rescue the diver stuck in the tree.

“He was up in a tree probably at least 50 to 60 feet taller than any of our ground ladders would reach. So, we had to take our aerial ladder back it into position, into the woods,” Roby said.

OVFC says it took about one hour to get the diver to land.

“We were able to lower it down to the ground, where EMS people were able to take over, EMS people from the County of Orange Fire and EMS Department. At that point we were able to bring him out of the woods, load him in an ambulance. We took him to the Orange County Airport, where he was flown by a helicopter to a hospital,” Roby said.

While incidents like this are scary, there are not many at Skydive Orange. The Orange County 911 center says it’s only had two calls in the last six months.

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