Thai paratrooper cheats death as parachute fails mid-air (video)
Terrified jogger watches horror plunge during army training drill in Thailand
A Thai paratrooper had a brush with death after his parachute failed to open mid-air, in a terrifying training mishap that was caught on camera by a shocked jogger nearby.
The heart-stopping incident unfolded at around 4.30pm, yesterday, May 19, when soldiers from the 4th Army’s Sichon Special Warfare Training Camp were performing an annual parachute jump at Vajiravudh Military Camp in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, southern Thailand.
Local media man Thewan Ketkaew, happened to be jogging through the neighbouring Somdej Phra Srinagarindra 84 Public Park when he spotted the soldiers jumping one-by-one from a military helicopter.
At first, the jumps went smoothly, with parachutes unfurling in the breeze as soldiers floated gracefully towards the ground. But as 49 year old Thewan reached for his mobile phone to film the scene, disaster nearly struck.
“One of the parachutes didn’t open, he just plummeted,” he told ThaiRath reporters. “I saw him falling fast and thought he’d crashed into the pond. I ran to look but couldn’t see him at all. It was terrifying.”
A rescue boat was quickly dispatched to the scene where only a tangled parachute was found floating in the water.
Miraculously, it later emerged the paratrooper had kept his cool mid-air and cut free from the malfunctioning chute before deploying his reserve. He glided safely down into the military camp grounds, narrowly avoiding disaster.
A senior officer confirmed the soldier was unhurt and had followed emergency protocol perfectly.
“This is why we train. His actions were swift and professional, he saved his own life.”
Fellow paratroopers and commanding officers breathed a collective sigh of relief after the jump, which could have ended in tragedy.
The reserve chute is now credited with averting what might have been a fatal free-fall and Thewan’s mobile phone footage serves as a chilling reminder of the risks soldiers face, even in training.
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