While people in Florida used special eclipse glasses to try to get glimpse at the sky on Monday, some took the views in from the sky.
Joshua Laquis said he fell in love with skydiving after moving to Florida. He said he learned at SkyDive Deland and has been passionate about it ever since.
“When I moved to Florida, sky diving was always something I was extremely interested in and always passionate about, and when I moved to Florida, I had the opportunity to start practicing it there,” Laquis said. “When I heard about the solar eclipse thing happening, I was just trying to think of ways to experience it in the most unique way possible, and I figured: What better way to experience it than in the air?”
Laquis made plans to travel to Arkansas to experience the totality of the eclipse while free-falling.
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“I was the first out of the aircraft. It was unbelievable, way darker than I expected. So it took me a little while to kind of see the airport I had to land on,” Laquis said. “Maybe about a minute after I pulled my parachute is when everything got back bright. It was just really cool to experience.”
The excitement didn’t last long, however, when he noticed what appeared to have been a plane down in the brush near the airport.
“Literally within minutes, we heard about this plane that went down,” Laquis said.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office told 5NEWS in Arkansas that four people onboard were taken to the hospital after witnesses reported it suffered engine failure.
“Just rushed into the bushes to see if we could find anything. The plane was there literally within 50 feet of the road, so yeah, it wasn’t a pleasant sight. I don’t want to go into too much detail of what happened, but thankfully everyone is alive,” Laquis said.
Laquis posts his skydiving adventures on his Instagram: joshua.laquis.
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