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Sources for 1967 Lake Erie Skydiving disaster

Contemporaneous news[edit]

"The Day - Aug 28, 1967" pages 1, 12 "Lake Erie Search Pressed For 14 Missing Sky Divers"
St. Petersburg Times - Aug 29, 1967 "Sky Diver Helmets Found"
The Milwaukee Journal - Aug 30, 1967 "Water Top Risk for Sky Divers"
The Evening Independent - Aug 28, 1967 "Slim Hope Held for Missing 14 'Chutists"
The Miami News - Aug 28, 1967 18 Skydivers Miss Target in Ohio

Metafilter article
Time article "Parachuting: Bad Trip", Friday, Sept. 08, 1967 (paywalled); Opening online at [1]. Points:
- 20 jumpers:
  - 2 Jumped & survived: Robert Coy and Bernard Johnson, rescued by passing boat;
  - 2 delayed to jump from a still higher altitude and landed safely on the ground.
  - 10 bodies found (one woman)
  - 6 not recovered, presumed drowned.
- Took off from Ortner field
- All 20 had 100+ jumps
- Plan: go to 20K feet, freefall to ~ 3000ft, then deploy and land
- Weather overcast at 4500ft, 60 MPH winds
- B25 bomber from WW II, "rudimentary navigation equipment"; Pilot: Robert Karns, 29, did not have type rating for plane
- Take-off and target was Ortner field, 10 miles from Lake Erie
- FAA ATC in Oberlin was ATC in charge. ATC: "You are three miles west of Ortner." Karns: "Fine, I'm releasing my jumpers."
- Clouds, broken by "patches of brownish green"; jumping forbidden by USPA rules and FAA regs
- Coy quote: "I was flabbergasted. I couldn't see land. Nothing. I could see the other parachutes going into the water."
Plain Dealer article "Irresistible rare skydive turned tragic 40 years ago" August 27, 2007 (paywalled, $3) (linked from Metafilter statement "The tragedy remains the worst recreational skydiving accident in history")

Dreyer v. United States, 349 F. Supp. 296 (N.D. Ohio 1972)
Freeman v. United States, 509 F.2d 626 (6th Cir. 1975).
- Alternative URLs: [2], [3]