An engine fire in an Out Of The Blue Skydiving aircraft Sunday afternoon forced 13 people to bail out early, scattering the divers across 10 square miles of eastern El Paso County.
Nobody was hurt, authorities said.
Out Of The Blue Skydiving typically hauls clients from first-timers to pros upward 12,000 feet, promising “the longest freefall in southern Colorado followed by an unforgettable canopy ride back to solid ground,” the company’s website says. Out Of The Blue officials could not be reached.
An engine caught fire shortly after takeoff. By the time El Paso County deputies and local firefighters responded at the Colorado Springs East Airport near Ellicott, a private airfield, the pilot had made a successful emergency landing, sheriff’s spokeswoman Natalie Sosa said.
Company crews tracked down and accounted for the 13 divers. Two had jumped in pairs.
“They were clients of Out Of The Blue Skydiving,” Sosa said. “They were getting ready to skydive when the engine experienced trouble.”
The cause of the engine fire wasn’t clear. But local authorities weren’t looking into what happened. Sosa said the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
