A soldier in Thailand narrowly escaped death when his parachute failed to open during a routine training exercise – the horror moment was captured in remarkable footage
The startling moment a soldier’s parachute failed to open during a military exercise has been captured in heart-stopping video footage. The breath-taking incident was caught on May 19 and shows a paratrooper in Nakhon Si Thammara, Thailand, free-falling after his safety gear failed.
Onlooker Wetanya Ketkaew said the incident occurred during regular army drills being carried out at Fort Wachirawut. “The paratroopers had leapt from a helicopter, but one of them was falling faster than the others because he couldn’t open his parachute,” he said. “I was so shocked that I ran and tried to inform the other soldiers in the area.
“It turns out the soldier managed to land safely on the ground. He had fallen into a pond, but he was alive.” The soldier’s remarkable escape from death was confirmed after he was found floating unharmed in the water of the pond after managing to cut away the failed chute.
Local journalist Thewan Ketkaew was jogging in the area at the time of the incident. They told Thai.news that at first everything seemed normal at first even though the “the wind was quite strong”. He added that the troops “seemed to be managing it well”.
It comes after a shocking incident last month in which popular skydiver Jade Damarell deliberately chose not to open her parachute as she plummeted from 10,000ft on to a field in County Durham. Jade, who had 80 jumps under her belt in 2025 alone ,died after hitting the ground without her chute.
Her skydiving club revealed that it was a “deliberate act”, information they say came from the police, who found a note outlining her intentions. Nigel Wreford, 56, a farm worker living close to the site of the tragedy in Peterlee, County Durham, said: “I’ve been told by quite a few people that she knew what she was doing — she had apparently left a suicide note.”
Nigel recalled the moment a traumatised parachutist who had been with Jade on her fatal fall turned up at his home. Mr Wreford added: “You can’t imagine how traumatic it must have been. She said he was in a hell of a state. He was very incoherent. It’s horrible. I can’t stop thinking about the girl and her family.”
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