A man who lives nearby said he heard the whole thing, but had no idea he was listening to a plane crash.
"All of a sudden we just heard like metal hitting a lawnmower, a little louder, a little more deep, but nothing you'd think was a plane crash," Jake Thompson said.
The pilot and five jumpers were hospitalized, one with critical injuries.
"The sentiment was, how did anybody get out of this alive?" said James Voutour of the Niagara County sheriff's office. "It really is a devastating crash scene."
The cause of the crash is under investigation.