Exit Problems

For those who remember the post from 2009 on problems some paratroops have had exiting the aircraft, here’s one that makes the old heart stop.

There is no audio so it is hard to tell exactly what happened.  In any event, the fellow dangling on the end of the fouled static line and parachute assembly eventually gets to live thanks to the Hung Up Parachutist Release Assembly. 

While the soldier is dangling, the crew in the back of the transport break out the HUPRA parachute rig and hook it onto him.  They eventually release him and the guy floats to the ground. You can see the red nylon of the HUPRA pack just as the guy floats downward.  His landing was likely a hard one, but at least he lived.

-srbp-

Airborne misadventures, Part Deux

For those who enjoyed the video of paratroops exiting an aircraft in a less than proficient manner, here is another one to lighten up your day.

This one is “Airdrop mishaps” which – as the title suggests – is a string of things that went wrong in dropping equipment and supplies to soldiers.

There are flipped-over trucks, a LAPESed pallet that breaks open, spilling  its load all over hells half acre, a parachute deployment problem (it didn’t deploy until it was way too late) and  - a personal favourite – the vehicle that broke free of its restraining straps and started off down range on its own.

-srbp-

Airborne

For a total change of pace, here are some videos of paratroops exiting aircraft.

In the first video, left, they are clearly not doing it properly.  The video speaks for itself, but it must be noted that these are likely students. The number of bad exits is simply too high to make this anything other than a training drop at comparatively high altitude.

Your humble e-scribbler is far from an expert on these things, but somehow it certainly doesn’t seem correct procedure to sit on the door and scoot out until the slipstream rips you off into the air.

By the way, the gigantic numbers on the helmets in the freeze for this pretty much confirms they are students.

Before anyone can make this out to be a problem with American, at right is a video of an extremely well-trained group of American paratroops exiting the aircraft cleanly. 

The difference between the soldiers in the first video and in this one at right should be obvious even to the untrained eye.

The second video seems to be from upwards of 20 years ago, as well.  That might also make a bit of a difference and some of you will notice the huge variation in the amount of kit each soldier is carrying in the first video compared to the second one.

That’s all the same, though as operational jumps may involve carrying seemingly absurd amounts of equipment strapped to each soldier.

And when you’ve done with those, take a gander at some British soldiers doing a tactical altitude jump (500 feet or thereabouts). It’s wild footage and the language is a wee bit salty.

This video gives an idea of what the individual soldiers experiences – at least visually – as he or she falls to Earth.