Two of the Red Devils parachute team have relived the terrifying moment when their chutes tangled 2,000 feet above the Cumbrian coast.
Corporals Wayne Shorthouse, 32, and Mike French, 34, faced catastrophe as they tried to perform a stacking display at Whitehaven Air Show. The drama ended with Shorthouse wrapping his legs inside the ropes of his colleague’s deflated parachute and guiding him to the safety of the town’s Queens Dock.
“We were giggling as we hit the water, and then we just paddled to the side and went off for pie and peas and a pint together,” said French.
French and his colleague said they were looking forward to their next jump. They only remained grounded on Saturday because conditions were too poor in Nuneaton.
“I don’t think either of us was frightened at the time,” said French. “We just focused on the job in hand. It hit afterwards when we realised it could have been a lot worse.”
He added: “It was always intended as a water jump. If it hadn’t been I’d have deployed my reserve chute and left Wayne with a bag of washing around his ankles.”
French recalled calling his wife, Claire, 30, and telling her: “We had a wrap today.”
“There was no drama. She just said ‘That’s fine.’”
The two friends were part of a six-man team jumping from a PAC 750 aircraft.
Shorthouse was the first to exit the plane, with his colleague following a split second later. The manoeuvre then require d French to “collide” with the partner he has been jumping with for almost five years.
As the “pin”, French headed towards his comrade at speed so they could collide and Shorthouse grab his parachute and tuck his feet into it.
“As the pin I had to hit Wayne from the back so that he could then grab my parachute and tuck his feet into it. But this time it went round me rather than bouncing off and back. That left us tangled up with Wayne unable to see what was going on.
“It’s something we practise in training, and everything was by the book. I just started shouting instructions to him so he could guide us in. The first thing I said was ‘Get it off’, to let him know there was a problem.
“But he was already trying to do that; it was just me stating the obvious. I asked him if he was alright and he said yeah. So I said ‘Let’s get down.’
“From then on it was a question of me letting him know what his parachute was doing, so he could look after the bad parachute. We were both wearing open-face helmets and I was giving him instructions like ‘Left, left’, ‘Right, right’ until we were down.”
The two Parachute Regiment friends, who complete around 50 display jumps a year, landed cross-wind at a speed of 10-15mph.
“It was just like coming off a diving board,” said Shorthouse. “We’ve no injuries at all and if I’d needed to I could have slowed us down evening more.”
Asked whether there would be an official investigation into the incident, French replied: “There’s not really an investigation. The British Parachute Association will ask us what happened and we’ll send in a report and that will be it.”
Was any apology due, or thanks given? “It’ll be Wayne thanking me,” laughed French. Neither man is worried about the next jump. “I’m excited more than anything,” said French.
He added: “I wouldn’t do this job if it was straightforward and boring. We do this for the risk, and to promote the Parachute Regiment.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened. It could have been a combination of factors. I think it was just one of those things.”
