No historian, but in his memoir, Donald Burgett of the 101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles) describes pilots not hitting, but directly causing the deaths of paratroopers by flying low for their own safety, and too low for chutes to deploy.

"The pilots were supposed to drop us between 600 and 700 feet, but I know that my drop was between 250 and than 300 feet...I couldn't help wondering at the same time if I had got the opening shock first or hit the ground first; they were might close together..."

...

"Then I saw vague, shadowy figures of troopers plunging downward. Their chutes were pulling out of the pack trays and just starting to unfurl when they hit the ground . Seventeen men hit the ground before their chutes had time to open."