DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment skydivers were caught out as wild winds and thunderstorms lashed Melbourne.
A total 14 tandem skydivers were rescued after diving in wild weather at St Kilda foreshore.
Five people were treated with welts and abrasions after freefalling from 12,000 feet into hail and storm clouds.
Instructor Thomas Lumb said the weather turned to “armageddon” after they leapt from the plane.
“Once we were out, there was nothing we could do about it,” he said.
MFB confirmed two people were rescued while “struggling” in the water, their parachute still attached, after they were brought down by the storm at about 3pm.
Another 12 people were found at the foreshore after MFB conducted a land and sea search.
First-time skydiver Samuel Cunningham, 29, was covered from head to toe in red welts.
“It was very painful,” the Pakenham man said.
“It seemed all right on the way up, but when we jumped out everything went pear-shaped. We got pelted on the way down.”
Mr Cunningham and his instructor landed on the beach, about 1.5km away from the target landing spot.
Herald Sun reader Christian said he saw the skydivers “dropping like flies”.
“They were going way faster than usual and you could tell they were going to have a rough landing,” he said.
As the skydivers hurtled to the ground, Christian captured the heavy impact on his phone.
“The first one landed pretty heavily in the water, you can see it in the video,” he said.
“Then there was another one that landed on the patch of land in front of the Espy.”
Two people were taken to The Alfred hospital with minor injuries at 3.44pm, while another three were being assessed at the scene at 4pm.
Christian said about an hour before the storm hit he had walked past the Skydive the Beach outlet and asked one skydiver whether he’d be going up in the wild weather.
“He said they weren’t sure if they were still going up or not, but then about an hour later I was still walking around in the area and I noticed these four skydivers dropping like flies,” he said.
Mr Lumb said the instructors — all with skydiving experience — used radars and internet forecasts to track the weather.
But he said nothing had suggested a storm would hit during the jump.
In his seven years as an instructor, Mr Lumb said he had never experienced anything like the rapid weather change.
Only two of the tandem jumpers made it to the usual landing area at St Kilda Marina, with a couple landing on the beach, one coming down in the ocean and another landing in a park near the St Kilda Sea Baths.
Skydive the Beach owner Anthony Boucaut denied MFB reports that the skydivers had to be rescued.
He said the experienced divers decided on a soft landing on the sand and in shallow water when the wild weather hit.
“The 14 people rescued is absolute furphy,” he said.
“Never let a story get in the way of the truth.”
Two other skydive groups were booked in for the afternoon but have been cancelled with strong winds set to continue.
