The video was shot by the US soldiers on the ground and their reaction was absolutely priceless!
The US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade lost three High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV, aka ‘Humvees’) during the unsuccessful airdrop at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany as part of Sabre Junction ‘16, the website Tactical Air Network reported.
As described on the website, “The first Humvee meets its maker approximately 20 seconds into the footage. Though two of its three parachutes seem to have deployed, the Humvee nevertheless breaks free, and for a brief moment, joins the hallowed ranks of Army Aviation, before slamming into the ground.”
The second Humvee crashed 59 seconds into the video, “its chutes also deploying but the rigging failing to hold the pallet the Humvee is loaded onto.”
The third Humvee holding on for dear life attempted to fly for 1 minute and 32 seconds into the video before it also crashed to the ground.
Regarding why this incident occurred in the first place, the Tactical Air Network wrote that it could have been due to a number of factors including improper rigging, or high winds which would have had the effect of disturbing the drop.
"If the Humvee is improperly attached to its pallet, or all chutes fail to deploy (only two seemed to with the first loss), the weight of the vehicle coupled with the jarring motion of being pulled out of an inert position (inside the aircraft) would have rendered the G-11B’s retention abilities null,” the website reported.
No human causalities were reported during the incident.
