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Greek Paratrooper Left Hanging from Aircraft in Heart-Stopping Video

Greek paratrooper
The dramatic moment was captured on video. Video screenshot

A Greek paratrooper was left hanging from an aircraft as his parachute got tangled during a military exercise held in Cyprus recently.

The heart-stopping moments were captured on video as the Greek soldier was struggling to free the parachute which was held by the safety ring that connects the belt with the parachute bag.

Separate video footage caught the agonizing moments from inside the C-130 aircraft as his comrades were frantically trying to lift him from the abyss.

Eventually, the paratrooper was rescued.

Reports say that the C-130 took off from Larnaca airport. The soldier was the first in a line of 40 to jump at a height of around 5,000 feet.

The Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff (GEETHA), General Konstantinos Floros, will award the paratroopers who participated in the operation and faced the emergency situation, as well as the pilots of the C-130 transport aircraft of the Air Force.

In September 2020, a young sergeant in Greece’s Special Forces was fatally injured during a nighttime free-fall exercise out of a helicopter.

Strong winds are thought to have violently pulled the paratrooper outside of the exercise’s designated airdrop zone, causing his death.

Greek paratrooper section gets top marks from NATO

The Special Paratroopers Section, Ειδικό Τμήμα Αλεξιπτωτιστών (ΕΤΑ), has a long and distinguished history in the Hellenic Armed Forces.

In the closing days of 2021, the special-operations unit received NATO’s highest readiness qualification. Evaluators from the NATO Special Operations Forces Headquarters (NSHQ) traveled to Greece and put the country’s elite special operators through the wringer.

ETA not only passed with top marks but also achieved the highest possible rating.

The NSHQ committee evaluated ETA as “Combat Ready” and described its performance as exceptional, meaning that the Greek commandos can now deploy as part of a NATO Special Operations Land Task Group.

Gen. Konstantine Floros, chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff and a special operator himself, said in a tweet at the time: “My warm congratulations to the ETA for the excellent performance in the unit’s evaluation by the NATO Special Operations HQ. [We are] proud once more for the combat-ready ETA.”

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