Charlie Hall Jr., the vice president of the Golden Knights Alumni Association, said the group was formed in 1959 as a recruiting team similar to the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy’s Blue Angels. The demonstration teams have a show season that runs from March to December, keeping them on the road for about 240 days a year.

One of the parachutists was a member of the Army Golden Knights parachute team, while the other was with the Navy Leap Frogs parachute team, Dixon said. “Everyone just stopped talking”. It was a true moment of silence. “So scary”, said another witness, Sue Ondas. According to an unidentified female witness, she allegedly saw a “limp” body float past her window.

The two men were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Saturday morning, Fire Department spokesman Juan Hernandez said.

She said he looked unconscious as he hit the roof. He suffered a broken leg and is expected to recover, CNN reported. But you do everything you can to minimize those risks.

Dixon didn’t return a message seeking comment Sunday afternoon.

The accident remains under investigation.

Crouch didn’t have statistics for military parachutists, but said that in 2014 there were 24 fatal civilian skydiving accidents out of about 3.2 million jumps.

Hood and a Navy sailor were parachuting Saturday when they collided midair.

Television host and narrator Mike Rowe, who visited the team at their North Carolina training facility last month, called the experience of meeting the Knights, to include Hood, a privilege he’d never forget. “And as the plane continues to circle the drop zone we’ll do dry runs one after another to try to calculate the most precise point to exit the aircraft”. Investigators plan to interview all soldiers, pilots and ground guides that were involved in the stunt.

Fetzer said Hood possessed all the positive attributes instilled in student-athletes, including mental toughness, “a little bit of grit”, and a strong will and desire, all which served him well in the Army.

Sgt. Hood, who joined the Army more than 10 years ago, is married but has no kids, according to Donna Dixon, a spokesperson for the Golden Knights.

Sergeant Hood, from Cincinnati, Ohio, had survived five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.