According to the Ministry of Defense, this is a minor incident that occurs often. The parachute jump took place as part of Operation “Storm Tide”, a large-scale evacuation exercise involving 800 soldiers. During a ‘drop’, a number of paratroopers landed on the runway of the Weelde airfield in Ravels. On the concrete and not in the grass.
Some of them are unharmed, others have suffered ligament damage, small fractures or have bruises. “Five people are slightly injured. They are not hospitalized but are now at home and are no longer taking part in the operation”, explained captain Gino Clocheret.
The officer rules out any form of fault at the origin of the incident, “which is typical in parachuting”. “A hard landing with light injuries occurs regularly,” said Captain Clocheret, who stresses that no soldier was seriously injured.
The Defense Special Operations Regiment is conducting a large-scale evacuation exercise with high school students, which began on September 5 and will end on Friday. The operation, dubbed “Storm Tide”, involves some 800 soldiers from the land, air and medical component who carry out a major evacuation of civilians, interpreted for the occasion by 300 high school students.