Thirteen people, including a pilot, were able to safely parachute from a small plane before the aircraft crashed into New Zealand's North Island on Wednesday, authorities said.
Six passengers, six crew members and a pilot were forced to leap out of a Skydive Taupo flight on Wednesday after the aircraft suffered engine problems, BBC News reported.
"A skydiving plane encountered an engine problem shortly after take-off," Roy Clements, chief executive of Skydive Taupo which organized the trip, said in a statement. "All parachutes including the pilot exited the plane and landed safely."
"It was a miracle that no one was killed," said Mike Richards, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority.
No one on board was seriously injured.
At 12:55 p.m. local time, the PAL 750XL started experiencing trouble while it was on its way for a tandem skydive excursion over Lake Taupo on New Zealand's North Island, police and the company said.
After losing power about 1,300m off the ground, the pilot immediately asked the passengers to evacuate, Taupo Mayor David Trewavas said. As had been planned for the skydive excursion, the six crew members jumped in tandem with the six skydivers strapped to them, according to NBC News.
"All the precautions were taken and they evacuated the plane safely. The plane then crashed into the lake at a place called Loafer's Paradise," Trewavas told the New Zealand Herald.
"I saw all these people coming down, and I thought that was a crazy place to be coming down, that they would all end up in the lake," a witness told The Associated Press.
Another witness told local media that he heard a loud bang before seeing skydivers jump off the plane.
"It sounded like an engine blowing up. It would've been no longer than 15 seconds between the bang and when the skydivers started jumping out of the plane," he told the Herald. "It was pretty amazing that they could get out, it's amazing that they're safe."
Meanwhile, an investigation is being conducted on the accident, with New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission stating that the cause appears to have been an engine problem mid-flight.
