On August 27, 1967, eighteen skydivers mistakenly parachuted into Lake Erie, four or five nautical miles (7.5–9.3 km) from Huron, Ohio, United States, after jumping from a civilian North American B-25 Mitchell.

The plane's pilot, unable to see the surface through heavy cloud cover, had relied on guidance from the Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, which had incorrectly advised him that he was over Ortner Airport—actually twelve to thirteen miles (19–21 km) away.

Around 30 parachutists arrived at Ortner Airport in Wakeman, Ohio, on August 27, 1967, to skydive together from a privately owned North American B-25 Mitchell bomber (registration N3443G[8]).

[9] After a previous paid performance at an air show, the bomber's owner, Bob Karns, had offered a free jump out of gratitude to the skydiving community.

[16] A spectator, Ted Murphy, decided to fly up to 12,000 feet and take photos of the descending skydivers, accompanied by a parachutist who had intended to jump but had changed his mind due to the overcrowding.

[20] Karns's equipment allowed him to communicate with Cleveland Center or navigate via VHF omnidirectional range (VOR, also known as Vortac or Omni), but not both at once; he did not tell the controller about this.

Engel Smit, the new controller on duty, mistook the Cessna's position on the radar display for the B-25's and gave Karns instructions as if he were Murphy.

[23] The surface was not visible through cloud cover; jumping under such conditions was forbidden by Federal Aviation Administration rules, as well as those of the USPA.

[30] In summaries of the incident by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and a federal court (see below), the only account of the deceased jumpers' reactions comes from the two survivors, Robert L. Coy and Bernard Johnson, who reported seeing several canopies already deployed, running roughly parallel to the shore.

[32] Both survivors shed boots, heavy clothing, and anything that would not float, doffing their chutes and jump suits as they hit the water.

[34] Glimpsing water through a hole in the clouds, Karns remarked to his co-pilot that he hoped they had not dropped the jumpers over Lake Erie.

[27] Paul Potter, an off-duty Coast Guard lieutenant at the beach near Lorain, saw the chutes deploy and ran for a telephone before the first diver hit the water.

[38] Dean Phillips and Richard Ralph, two brothers-in-law out on a pleasure boat, rescued Coy and Johnson, as well as Dorsie Kitchen, whom they were unable to resuscitate.

[13] Coast Guard assessments for finding more survivors were pessimistic,[39] which was borne out in following days; the final body was recovered on September 4.

Norman Heaton, executive director of the United States Parachute Association, testified that the jumpers could not have drifted more than 16,000 ft (5,000 m), meaning that the bomber was at least a mile (1.6 km) offshore at the time of the jump.

[45] The NTSB's chair, Joseph J. O'Connell Jr., presented the board's findings on September 25 at a hearing of the subcommittee regarding the proposed legislation.

[52] In the same journal, Laura J. Perkins cites Freeman as an example of how it is often easier to collect damages against a third party than against an air sport service provider, as the former are not covered by waivers.