Latest news with #parachute
ABC News
5 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Wartime spies posed as swagmen near Townsville, historian's research reveals
On a lush north Queensland cattle property in April 1942, a strange shape emerging from the clouds caught a woman's eye as she hung up the washing. A mushroom-shaped cloth attached to a glittering figure was descending from the low-lying cloud cover, the parachutist's feet furiously steering away from the farmhouse. Eyewitnesses quickly mounted their horses and rode to the landing site, but the shadowy figure had vanished. It is a tale that seems almost fictional, one bound to happen far from Australia's shores. But Australian historian Ray Holyoak from James Cook University has uncovered radar records, police reports and eyewitness accounts revealing evidence of a concerted foreign espionage effort in wartime northern Australia. "There is some detailed information in several Australian archive files that around the end of April 1942, there is at least one parachute drop of spies," he said. During World War II the northern Australian garrison city of Townsville was an important Allied base during the fight for the Pacific. The city's deep-water port, rail facilities and troop staging areas made it a key strategic location of great interest to wartime enemies. "After the Pearl Harbour attack in December 1941 they really do think there's going to be a landing, or at least a heavy attack, to the north of Australia," Mr Holyoak said. The fall of Lae in Papua New Guinea gave Japanese forces a base closer to Australia, allowing them to step up surveillance efforts. "We've already had the bombing of Darwin in February 1942, and by March there's Japanese surveillance aircraft coming over Townsville," Mr Holyoak said. "To be able to come this far was possible." Allied intercepts from the time show records of spies or sympathisers feeding information from Townsville about troop movements and popular pubs in early 1942, Mr Holyoak said. Then came the parachute drop of a suspected spy onto a north Queensland farm by a Japanese aircraft, on the Woodhouse pastoral holding near Giru, south-east of Townsville. "It sounds like a story or a training exercise, but on the day there are radar records of a particular Japanese aircraft, an MC-20, that was used in the early stages in South-East Asia for spy and parachute drops," Mr Holyoak said. An initial search of the area near the farm was fruitless, but later that night, a sentry fired two warning shots at an unknown man who had approached an American airfield at Woodstock, roughly 8 kilometres from the landing site. The next morning, Mr Holyoak said, authorities noted an itinerant swagman walked along the road towards Townsville, near Toonpan. "Somebody walking through farms or in an Allied uniform — they would have got stopped and checked," he said. "But somebody in a swaggie's outfit walking towards Townsville would have been ignored, so the Queensland Police thought really this was the perfect disguise. "They weren't challenged, and they walked on to Townsville and were never seen again." August 15 will mark 80 years since the Allied victory in the Pacific, when Japanese forces surrendered following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. North Queensland historian and author of Townsville in War and Peace 1942-1946, Geoff Hansen, said the war developed the northern region into the important defence base that it is today. "We had air strips, forts, air raid shelters, search lights, anti-aircraft gun emplacements being built, large military camps and hospitals, schools were closed. "We had lots of Americans and Australians come in, and it was also where the fifth US Air Force was formed, so it was a big transformation." Mr Hansen said it was crucial that local historical accounts of the broader conflict were remembered and commemorated appropriately. "I think it's important to remind ourselves that the world can change very quickly, and north Queensland experienced that in 1942 to 1945." The garrison city will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific with a joint US-Australian commemorative service involving veterans, families and dignitaries.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Sport
- CBS News
Felix Baumgartner, daredevil who jumped from the stratosphere, dies in paragliding accident at age 56
Felix Baumgartner, the daredevil who made a record-breaking parachute jump from the stratosphere in 2012, died Thursday in a paragliding accident in Italy, a local mayor confirmed. Firefighters who responded to the scene said they found a paraglider that had crashed into the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio, on central Italy's eastern coast. "Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight," the town's Mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, said on Facebook. Baumgartner, 56, made global headlines in 2012 when he was lifted into the stratosphere, about 24 miles up, in a capsule carried by a helium balloon, and then parachuted down to a landing in New Mexico. During the jump, he broke the record for fastest free fall, descending at about 843.6 mph and becoming the first human to break the sound barrier without the assistance of a vehicle. Originally from Austria, Baumgartner began skydiving at age 16 and further honed his skills in the Austrian military, according to his personal website. In 1988, he teamed up with Red Bull, which sponsored the stratosphere jump under the Stratos project and many other daring feats. The training and planning for the 2012 Stratos jump took five years. Among the records Baumgartner would break that day was highest jump, which had been held by Air Force Capt. Joe Kittinger since 1960, when he leapt from an open-air gondola basket that rose to 102,000 feet. Kittinger would go on to train Baumgartner for the record-breaking Stratos jump. (Baumgartner's height record was broken two years later.) In addition to skydiving, Baumgartner was an accomplished BASE jumper, breaking two records in 1999: Highest BASE jump and lowest BASE jump. The low jump, which he took from one of the hands of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, was only 95 feet. The high jump was taken from the 88th floor of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, although that record has since been broken and is currently held by the late Valery Rozov, who jumped from Cho Oyu in 2016. Baumgartner was also a helicopter pilot and was part of Red Bull's aerial acrobatics team. "Ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to jump out of a plane," Baumgartner told Red Bull in an interview after becoming a licensed helicopter pilot. "For Red Bull Stratos, we had a very long list of 'what ifs,' in other words eventualities that could happen and how we would deal with them in an emergency. The list kept getting longer and longer. I was only afraid of the things that were not on the list. The things we had not thought of," he told Red Bull, adding, "to this day, I abort missions if the conditions are not right." While Baumgartner's stunts inspired millions, his political views were known to cause controversy. On social media, he mocked climate activists and others who sought to limit the effects of climate change, and voiced opposition to LGBTQ rights, according to the AFP news agency. He also once suggested Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-immigration policies.
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Military rescuers extract injured hunter on parachute jump into northern B.C.
The airborne rescue marked the first operational nighttime parachute jump from the military's new CC-295 Kingfisher aircraft, and due to the risk of wildfires in the region, the mission was conducted without the benefit of flares to illuminate the area. (Handout) Military search-and-rescue technicians parachuted into a remote canyon in northern British Columbia early Wednesday morning after a hunter was crushed and seriously injured by the horse he was riding. The airborne rescue marked the first operational nighttime parachute jump from the military's new CC-295 Kingfisher aircraft, and due to the risk of wildfires in the region, the mission was conducted without the benefit of flares to illuminate the area. The call for assistance came in to the Royal Canadian Air Force's 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron, based at 19 Wing Comox, late Tuesday evening. Authorities say the injured man had been hunting with a group of horseback riders in a rugged area approximately 185 kilometres east of Fort Nelson when the accident occurred. The Kingfisher airplane and a Cormorant helicopter took off around 9:45 p.m. for the 16-hour roundtrip mission, according to Lt. Keil Kodama, spokesperson for 19 Wing Comox. 'Search and rescue technicians parachuted from the Kingfisher, hiked to the injured rider, provided immediate medical support, and co-ordinated a successful helicopter extraction,' Kodama said in a statement to CTV News. 'The clouds broke and we had a really good hole to get in there and everything kind of worked out for us,' said Max Honeyman, one of two rescuers who parachuted from the plane shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday. 'We knew the patient had some serious injuries that could need, could need immediate attention, so we opted to jump.' The rescuers parachuted into a meadow roughly a kilometre from the accident scene, and then hiked up a river to the injured man, Honeyman said. 'We got to the patient pretty quickly, managed to get there and then about two hours later, the Cormorant showed up,' he added. 'We spent the night with him and since the moment we got there until the moment we hoisted him out… he was getting better and better and better.' The injured hunter was transferred from the helicopter onto the Kingfisher in Fort Nelson and then flown to Prince George for higher-level emergency medical treatment. B.C. Emergency Health Services has not responded to a request for information about the patient's status. The Kingfisher search-and-rescue airplanes began operations in B.C. earlier this year, replacing the decades-old Buffalo aircraft as Canada's main fixed-wing search-and-rescue platform. The federal government announced in 2016 that it was buying 16 Kingfishers to fill the search-and-rescue role in Canada following the planned retirement of the Buffalos. The air force intended to have the first of the new twin-propeller Kingfishers operating by 2020, but the rollout was plagued by delays – first due to concerns about the aircraft's operating manual, and later by the COVID-19 pandemic and legal issues around the naming of the aircraft.
News.com.au
6 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Australian man, 42, dies in BASE jumping accident in Italy
An Australian father has died in a freak accident during an international BASE jumping competition in Italy. James Nowland, 42, died in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy's north east on Wednesday with investigators suspecting there was a technical issue with his parachute. The Perth man crashed into a road 400m above his intended landing site after jumping from the summit of Sass Pordoi, a plateau popular for BASE jumping. A helicopter and a mountain rescue team were deployed after being alerted by a group of Australians Mr Nowland was with, but they were unable to revive him. Investigators suspect a technical issue prevented Mr Nowland's parachute from opening in time. 'We tried to do our best to save (him)... there was nothing to do for him,' rescuer Andrea Dorigatti told 7NEWS. 'I asked the friends and they told me that the problem was with the parachute that didn't get open.' Mr Nowland was taking part in the Pordoi BASE Race, a competition where BASE jumpers try to get the fastest time between the summit of Sass Pordoi and the finish line at the bottom of the mountain. In a tribute shared to Facebook, Mr Nowland's brother Adrian said, 'Hope you're soaring through the clouds doing what you love forever.'
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A breakdown of safety procedures ‘directly contributed' to an 82nd Airborne paratrooper's death
On Sept. 12, 2024, Army Spc. Matthew Perez made his way to the ramp of a C-17 and prepared to take part in a parachute jump at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana. Perez, who was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, had told his parents that he was nervous because he was going to be jumping with over 150 pounds of gear, more than he had ever jumped with. As Perez, 20, pushed unsteadily out of the door of the aircraft, catastrophe struck. An incorrectly tied knot caused his main parachute not to open, according to a subsequent investigation. Once he jumped from the plane — and investigators believe he may have tripped or fallen as he did so — Perez had just 7.6 seconds to realize the failure and pull his reserve parachute. The Army's review of the jump found that Perez opened his reserve parachute roughly 100 feet from the ground but still hit at a high rate of speed, suffering major injuries. Perez was medically evacuated to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight on Sept. 13. Perez's wife Jessica, whom he had married that May, was pregnant at the time of his death. He had also adopted his wife's daughter. 'He was born at 27 weeks,' Perez's father Jose told Task & Purpose in 2024. 'He was a preemie. It was told to my wife that he was going to have a hard life, and he dealt with hard life, and […] he was strong. Like I said, he was built differently.' The Army's investigation into Perez's death, which was obtained by Task & Purpose, uncovered a serious breakdown in safety procedures and inspections among 82nd Airborne jumpmasters and safety officials leading up to the incident. Investigators also found that the jumpmaster who most likely inspected Perez before the jump was not able to correctly describe to the investigating officer the proper way to check a critical knot in Perez's equipment that failed and led to his death, and the jumpmaster likely lied about where he was during the events leading up to the jump. The investigating officer described the T-11 main parachute and its reserve chute as 'inherently flawed' because extension lines must be attached to the main parachute for jumps from C-17 aircraft, increasing the risk of someone making a catastrophic mistake during the process. And the reserve parachute does not open automatically if a paratrooper cannot pull the ripcord in time, according to the Army. 'Their operation requires paratroopers to strictly adhere to the policies and procedures for airborne operations,' the investigation says. 'In this airborne operation, those policies and procedures were not followed. Consequently, SPC Perez's death was likely preventable.' The investigation found a failure between two vital pieces of Perez's equipment — a long yellow cord known as a 'static line' and a five-foot extension added to the line. Perez's static line, which automatically opens a paratrooper's parachute, required an extension for the jump. But somewhere in the pre-jump process, the two lines on Perez's parachute were 'most likely' improperly connected, and that flaw was not spotted. Once the connection between them failed, there was no hope that his main parachute could deploy. Perez's family remains unsatisfied by the Army's explanation for their son's death. In the wake of the fatal jump, a company commander was fired and a handful of riggers and jumpmasters on duty during the training exercise were punished. Jose Perez said he does not believe the Army has gone far enough. 'As a parent, it's never going to be enough,' Jose Perez told Task & Purpose. 'He don't get to hold his baby. He don't get to see us, talk to us. All of that is taken away.' Investigators traced the direct cause of Perez's death to an improperly tied knot that should have connected a 5-foot extension to his static line, which are required for all jumps from C-17s. When five-foot Universal Static Line Extensions are used, Army parachute rigging regulations mandate they be secured to the main static line using a girth hitch, a simple, time-tested loop-and-pull knot with countless uses in the military and beyond. But at some point prior to Perez's jump, the extension was added to his parachute with an improperly tied knot, according to the investigation. Investigators said they could not determine exactly who was responsible for the fatal error or when it occurred and that no record was made of the addition in the parachute's Form 3912, a small logbook that stays with each parachute through its service life. 'The improper packing, rigging, modification, inspecting, or some combination thereof, of SPC Perez's T-11 M [parachute] directly contributed to his death,' the investigation found. The investigating officer said he could not definitively determine when Perez's static line was adjusted, whether early in the evening or at the airfield just before the flight, said Army Col. Mary Ricks, a spokesperson for the 18th Airborne Corps. 'This is because there is no direct evidence that SPC Perez's 5' [Universal Static Line Extension] was replaced,' Ricks said in a statement to Task & Purpose. 'The [investigating officer] found the most likely cause for the improper girth hitch, however, is that it was adjusted at the [departure airfield].' Fatal jumps are relatively rare in the unit. Perez is the only 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper to die during an airborne operation within the past two years, Ricks said. If Perez's line was switched before he donned the parachute, then the mistake would have had to be missed by at least one jumpmaster during a Jumpmaster Personnel Inspection, or JMPI, before he moved out to the flightline to board the C-17. Investigators spoke to all of the jumpmasters on duty for the jump, but none of the soldiers said they had conducted Perez's JMPI, according to the investigation. Given those blanket denials, investigators said they could not rule out the possibility that Perez did not receive an inspection prior to the jump, but the investigating officer determined that 'it is more likely than not' that Perez was inspected. If so, investigators wrote, at least one jumpmaster 'lied to me about his whereabouts during the critical period.' The soldier who officials suspected of lying about Perez's JMPI — whose identity, like all witnesses in the investigation, was redacted — was 'admonished' by the division commander, Ricks said. When quizzed on their general knowledge of parachute inspections, four of the jumpmasters inspected the 5-foot extension line 'in a different time or manner' than required by standard procedures, the investigation found. None of the jumpmasters said they had failed to inspect the line, according to the investigation. One jumpmaster was unable to properly describe the correct way to inspect a girth hitch. Ricks confirmed to Task & Purpose that this jumpmaster is the one who most likely inspected Perez prior to the jump. 'This investigation revealed confusion among jumpmasters about the proper manner to inspect a 5-ft [extension],' the investigation says. 'This likely had grave safety implications for the overall [Joint Forcible Entry — Airborne] operation.' After Perez's death, the investigative team looked at several parachutes that had been packed by soldiers with D Company, 189th Division Sustainment Battalion, which packs parachutes for the entire 82nd Airborne Division. That review uncovered an 'unacceptable rate' of problems ranging from minor to 'potentially catastrophic.' 'Based on our recent audit, these deficiencies are systematic and endanger the paratroopers of [the 82nd] Airborne Division if uncorrected,' the investigation says. Riggers with the unit, the report found, may have removed and replaced the 5-foot extension lines for some of the paratroopers as they waited to load the C-17 at the airfield. Investigators found that soldiers were unclear on the rules governing parachute preparation. Several of the soldiers did not know who was allowed to make changes to the 5-foot extension line, where in the preparation process such a change could occur, or what the unit's standard operating procedure is for rigger checks at the airfield. Two soldiers, whose names were redacted, recalled previous incidents during which 5-foot extension lines were changed at the departure airfield prior to a jump. Another thought the line could be changed at the airfield if an air delivery officer gave permission to do so. The investigation determined that by replacing the 5-foot extension at the airfield, the riggers had violated their unit's standard operating procedure. But in response to a question from Task & Purpose on those procedures, Ricks said that the company's standard operating procedures at the time did allow certified riggers to replace the extension lines at the airfield, and that that replacement is allowed under the Army's technical manual for the T-11 parachute. The night Perez died, one soldier told investigators, a member of the rigger check team was emotional after the accident. 'I spoke with her and she asked me 'what's going to happen to the person that packed it?'' the soldier recounted. 'And I just told her that I don't know. At any rate, she seemed very emotional and concerned. Last week, I was talking with [REDACTED] and he told me she asked, 'so wait, only riggers are supposed to change out static lines — not [jumpmasters]?' That concerned me, given this incident. It made me think there was something she knew or saw while on rigger checks at JRTC that she wasn't saying.' Riggers in D Company told investigators that a lack of incentives available to soldiers in the unit can 'lead to burnout and low quality,' and that riggers who are out of the office for extended periods 'could use a refresher' when they return. An Airdrop Systems Technician warrant officer — an advisor to senior leadership about airborne operations — told investigators that when soldiers at the rigger check facility are caught cutting corners, they are retrained. However, some leaders showed a reluctance to decertify soldiers because they might file a complaint with the Army's Inspector General's Office or Equal Employment Opportunity program. Ricks said that prior to Perez's death, certified parachute riggers were allowed to replace extension lines 'for any technical or materiel concerns' for C-17 jumps. But 82nd Airborne officials now restrict such changes. 'As a result of this tragic training fatality, however, the [82nd] Airborne Division now limits this practice within the unit,' Ricks said. 'The Division's policy now requires replacement of the entire parachute and the first General Officer in the chain of command must approve any exception.' Retired Army Lt. Col. Francesca Graham, a former jumpmaster, told Task & Purpose that replacing the extension line at the airfield was 'a very extraordinary thing to happen,' adding that if she were in a similar situation, she would have opted to replace the entire parachute instead of just the extension line. When paratroopers are at the departure airfield, they are rushing to get onto their aircraft, Graham said. That means anyone who makes changes to parachutes under such time pressure is more likely to make an error than the riggers and packers preparing parachutes much further in advance, she said. 'It's kind of one of those things where it's like, how much risk are you willing to take?' Graham said. 'Like for me, there were numerous times when a reserve parachute had an issue with it, and so as the jumpmaster doing the inspection, I was like: 'Go get a new reserve.'' Graham was also struck that none of the jumpmasters interviewed for the investigation was able to say conclusively who — if anyone — had inspected Perez. If Perez did go through a JMPI prior to the jump, then the jumpmaster 'didn't see a major defect,' she added. 'At the point that someone dies or there's an incident, people's memories get real sharp, real quick,' Graham said. 'One of those jumpmasters should have been able to say: 'Yes, I inspected this jumper.'' 'There appeared to be leadership failures from start to finish at the jump,' Graham said. Following Perez's death, a company commander was fired 'for the systemic failures of oversight with parachute rigging activities and quality control,' and is currently assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's staff, Ricks said. Nine other officers, warrant officers, and noncommissioned officers were reprimanded, she said. Eight jumpmasters and five riggers were decertified after the fatal jump, Ricks said. Being decertified means that jumpmasters can no longer perform their duties and have to undergo retraining, including the proper way to inspect the 5-foot inspection line. All the soldiers who were decertified due to Perez's death have since been recertified after going through the refresher training and resumed their duties, Ricks said. The 82nd Airborne Division has made a number of changes to make sure that the failures leading up to Perez's death do not happen again, including sending the decertified jumpmaster to a refresher course and retraining the riggers, Ricks said. The Army Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, also investigated Perez's death, but closed its investigation after finding 'no probable cause […] to support any allegations of criminal misconduct,' Ricks said. Jose Perez said leaders in his son's unit had told him and his wife that five — not eight — jumpmasters had been decertified. Ricks was unable to explain the disparity. Both of Perez's parents said they are not satisfied with the information they have been provided about their son's death. Perez's mother Vanessa said that she is frustrated by the redactions in the copy of the 240-page investigation that she and her husband were provided. 'There's full sentences, full paragraphs that we're not able to read, and we wonder why,' she said. 'At times, I'm going to be honest with you, I feel like they're hiding something.' Perez, who carried a squad automatic weapon, weighed 340 pounds at the time of the jump, including his body weight and all his gear, the investigation found. 'He stressed it out to us how scared he was because of so much weight he had,' Vanessa Perez said. 'He expressed it to myself, my husband, his wife as well.' But Ricks said it was not unusual for a machine gunner Perez's size to be carrying so much weight during a parachute jump. 'The T-11 Main and T-11 Reserve parachutes weigh a combined 53 pounds,' Ricks said. 'SPC Perez's combat equipment — which included his ruck, weapons case, and weapon — weighed 104 pounds. [Three hundred and forty] pounds combined pounds is within the acceptable range for jumping combat equipment, and the T-11 Main canopy is authorized and rated to be jumped at a total rigged weight of 400 lbs.' The exercise marked Perez's ninth jump and fourth in full equipment and at night. The investigation also determined that Perez's exit from the C-17 was 'weak,' possibly due to 'paratrooper fatigue and the weight of his combat equipment.' He likely tumbled through the air as a result. The report also faulted Perez for not keeping his hand over the ripcord for his reserve parachute when he left the aircraft and for waiting too long to pull his reserve. But Graham said it was 'ludicrous' to blame Perez for not exiting the aircraft correctly, explaining that rather than jumping up and out as paratroopers are supposed to, he likely fell forward because of how much weight he was carrying. 'He's now tumbling in the air, which means that the static line is wrapping around him, and he has no idea what's going on,' Graham said. 'You're disoriented completely, and you probably have things wrapped around you as you fall forward.' 'It's a lot,' Graham said. Jose Perez called the investigation's finding that his son waited too long to open his reserve parachute 'bullshit.' 'It's a training exercise — everyone should be coming home,' Jose Perez said. 'No one should die. Protocol should be: Everyone should come home.' The Air Force fitness test may soon include 2-mile runs twice a year 'War Thunder' continues to live up to its reputation for OPSEC violations Guardsmen sent to LA are 130 miles east of the city doing drug busts Lightning Carriers: The Marines' secret weapon in the Pacific Pentagon releases details of 'Midnight Hammer' strikes against Iran
