Ty Zellers, years ago with the left coast NPT.
It was in Pensacola, FL in front of over 200,000 spectators for the
Blue Angles homecoming show. It was a new parachute called the Jumbo
Para Commander. I did a 3 page article on it in the Parachutist
magagine.
....landed beside the podium and narrated the rest of the
demo.
Ahhhhhhh.....the good old days!!!
SOLDIER SURVIVES 4,500FT FALL AFTER PARACHUTE FAILS
CANADA July 10 1998
A SOLDIER escaped with broken bones after plunging 4,500ft when his
parachute failed to open properly. Paul Delaney, a 22-year-old rifleman,
passed out before he hit the ground at 70mph during an adventure
training exercise in Canada. He was in a coma for 24 hours after landing
on a muddy grass bank near Calgary. His legs and pelvis were broken.
Rifleman Delaney, of the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets, is
recovering in hospital. His father, Bill Delaney, himself an ex-soldier,
said: "He's a very lucky young man. Wind turbulence caught him and he
went into a spin. The more he twisted the more his parachute cords
tightened up and closed.
"It was only his fourth parachute jump but I'll take him up with me when
he's fit again." Rifleman Delaney, from Hinton, Hereford, joined the
Royal Green Jackets two years ago. He was in Canada on a military
training exercise at an army base in Wainwright, near Calgary.
Captain Rosie Stone, an Army spokesman, said: "Its a miracle that he
survived. Although the parachute didn't open properly it did help to
break his fall."
Rifleman Delaney telephoned his best friend Darren Turner, 23, a
student. His mother, Elaine Turner, of Kingstone, Hereford, said: "Paul
can't walk at the moment but he has plenty of guts and is determined to
make a full recovery.
"From what I can gather he jumped out of the aeroplane and went into a
twister because the cords spun round with him and the parachute. He
landed on wet, muddy grass on a ridge.
"He is in high spirits and everyone in his regiment was amazed he
survived. How many people jump 4,500ft and live to tell the tale?"
His regiment flew his mother, Anne Delaney, a nurse, out to Canada to be
with him. He is expected to be moved from the Foothills Hospital ,
Calgary, to a military hospital in England to complete his recovery.
