Pilot makes first skydive -- of necessity -- after another jumper damages plane

Although Shawn Kinmartin flies planes for a skydiving service, he hadn’t done any skydiving himself -- that is until he had to make an emergency jump on Saturday. On his fourth flight of the day taking jumpers up, Kinmartin was cruising at 11,500 feet over eastern Missouri and southern Illinois when he realized that his final skydiving client had damaged a key piece of gear while jumping out of the plane. During the jump, the skydiver struck the elevator of the aircraft, a part of a plane’s tail that controls its ability to climb and descent.
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