Pilot Makes Emergency Skydive: See His Frightening Crash Photos

Shawn Kinmartin, 21, is quick on his feet – in a figurative sense, as he made decisions under pressure while the plane he piloted began to malfunction, and in a literal sense, when he ultimately made an emergency skydive out of that very plane.

"I was nervous, you know, a little scared, but at the same time excited," Kinmartin said of his impromptu jump Monday on "New Day." 

Kinmartin was flying the plane for a recreational skydiving company in Missouri.

In a rare equipment failure, Kinmartin, a flight simulation student at Southern Illinois University, lost pitch control of the plane and had mere seconds to decide his next move. He realized he wouldn't be able to make an emergency landing, and quickly repositioned the plane.

"When I got it over some farmland, I decided that it was time for me to finally jump out," he said.

Kinmartin was 2,000 feet above ground when he jumped; he watched the abandoned plane crash as he floated down with a parachute.

The experience would scare many away from flying, but Kinmartin walked away unscathed and is already plotting his next adventure.

"I want to go up and do a tandem jump at full altitude."

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