Russian soldier is left dangling from a HELICOPTER when his parachute gets snagged as he jumps from 6,500ft
- Video has captured moment a Russian soldier got his parachute caught over the tail of a Mil Mi-8 military helicopter
- Parachutist had just leaped out from aircraft above airfield near Chita, Russia
- The soldier can be seen suspended mid-air as the helicopter slowly descended
If the idea of jumping out of an aircraft is enough to make your knees go weak, then you might want to look away now.
That’s because video has captured the moment a Russian soldier got his parachute caught over the tail of a helicopter, leaving him dangling thousands of feet in the air.
The parachutist had just leaped out of a Mil Mi-8 Hip helicopter from 6,500 feet above a military airfield in the village of Kashtak near the city of Chita, Russia, on Tuesday morning.
Video has captured the moment a Russian soldier got his parachute caught over the tail of a helicopter, leaving him dangling thousands of feet in the air
But the soldier’s parachute became entangled with the helicopter and he can be seen suspended in mid-air while attached only by thin suspension lines as the aircraft slowly descends.
The helicopter was able to safely return the uninjured parachutist to the ground as soldiers gathered on the airfield to help.
Local resident Maxim Stefanovich, who witnessed the bizarre incident, said he had heard something and then noticed the helicopter flying over the airfield.
At first he thought it was the military testing new equipment, but after zooming in on his phone camera, he spotted the parachutist dangling underneath the aircraft.
‘I immediately called the police and asked them to contact the military as quickly as possible,’ Stefanovich said.
The soldier’s parachute became entangled with the helicopter, and the aircraft can be seen slowly descending as he is left suspended mid-air while attached only by thin suspension lines
Local resident Maxim Stefanovich, who witnessed the bizarre incident, said he had heard something and then noticed the helicopter flying over the airfield
‘I was thinking about how the man’s health was, he was probably suffering with frostbite,’ he added. ‘It was minus 20 degrees Celsius out there. And under that tail rotor, it must be worse.
‘How come the pilot did not see him and do something to save him?’
Another witness posted on Russian social media site Telegram and said: ‘I look up and see a chopper 6,500 feet above the ground, but very strange – with a line and a dot at the end.’
It is unclear how the incident occurred, but local media report the soldier was not injured during his ordeal.
While it is rare for parachutes to get caught on aircraft, there have been scary moments in recent years.
In 2014, a Mexican paratrooper was left helplessly twisting in the air hundreds of feet above ground when he jumped into a tangle of used static lines.
In a two-minute video that captured the accident, the unidentified paratrooper can be seen caught up in the lines after jumping from the back of a plane during a military exercise.
He had been following a series of fellow paratroopers leaping out of the plane, the rest of whom were fortunate enough to have their parachutes open without catching.
The man spins for over a minute as cries to pull him back in can be heard on the audio.
Though the footage ends with the man still tethered to the plane, he was eventually, somehow, brought to safety and taken to hospital.