A pilot takes a big risk to save a skydiver's life

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/30/ [login to see] /pilot-skydiving-unsung-hero
In 1970, Alan Ayers was preparing for a skydiving competition in Gainesville, Florida. It wasn't the first time he'd jumped out of a plane, but it was almost his last.

Ayers would be jumping out of a Cessna 172, a small four seat passenger plane. In preparation, the passenger door and front passenger seat were removed from the plane. The passenger side seatbelt remained.

Ayers' teammates jumped first, leaving him and the pilot as the only two people remaining in the plane. It was Ayers' turn. But as he stepped out into the air, his foot got caught in the passenger side seatbelt.

"I was completely out of the plane on my back, staring up at the belly of the Cessna, with only my boot visible to the pilot ... I tried to pull myself up to reach the buckle, but I just couldn't," Ayers remembered.

Thousands of feet in the air, dangling from the plane, Ayers was out of options.