# A parachute drop goes very wrong. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906 "2016-04-23T15:22:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/1 "2016-04-23T15:22:56Z")
See $600K+ of Humvees become [lawn darts](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/04/21/what-happens-when-the-army-accidentally-uses-humvees-as-lawn-darts/). For whom and for how many is that going to be a career-ending incident? Three separate planes, and the vehicles come loose after leaving the plane, so it’s not going to be the pilots. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/2 "2016-04-23T15:53:05Z")
Damn. That’s an expensive accident. This reminds me of a story my aunt used to tell. They lived on the DugwayProving Ground army facility and there had been a exercise by the 82nd Airborne. Over the pilots’ objections, the colonel had insisted on having his jeep dropped from a particular altitude, which was just fine for Fort Bragg, NC at 400 ft above sea level, but the air is too thin at 4,300 feet. Ooops. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/3 "2016-04-23T16:00:30Z")
I don’t know why one of the guys observing that thinks it is funny? (As I say, there are those who build and fix things - and others who destroy things [or like to see things destroyed]) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/4 "2016-04-23T16:01:38Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Damn. That’s an expensive accident. Are we sure it was an accident? From the voices on the video it almost sounds like they were expecting it. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/5 "2016-04-23T16:05:39Z")
That’s a kind of car bomb I hadn’t seen before. How come Humvees cost 200K USD? What’s the heaviest weapon system that’s airdropped? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/6 "2016-04-23T16:08:45Z")
That was a pretty awesome screw up. 😃 The 3 stooges of the military. I wouldn’t worry about losing three Humvees as lawn darts. We left thousands of them and tons of other valuable equipment in Iraq because it was supposedly too expensive to ship them back to the US. Apparently the military has an ample supply. I guess its SOP not to have personnel within the drop zone? Didn’t look like there was any danger to the soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/7 "2016-04-23T21:59:27Z")
[There’s more.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1izGSMKqskY) ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/8 "2016-04-23T22:09:10Z")
This, folks, is why we practice. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/9 "2016-04-23T23:39:15Z")
Ages ago when I was living at Fort Bragg, they were doing C-5A (I believe) testing and were dropping 4 simulated payloads by chute. Pope used the DZs on Bragg for most of these tests. Back in those days the bases were basically open and a lot of these different tests and displays were open to the public and I was basically an Army brat so ---- what the heck. Before the drop this General stood before the bleachers (with say 100 or so people and press) and explained how they had run the test with three several times and that was no issue but he really wasn’t too sure how #4 would go. The plane came overhead and the payloads came out and the first three went down like rocks - barely a streamer to show there even were chutes. Number four on the other hand wafted down like it was being carried by angels. Everyone there basically oooo’s and ahhhh’d and chuckled our collective asses off. And this whole knot of Generals and Colonels basically disappeared. Leaving this poor Air-weenie Staff Sergeant to announce the demo was over. I can still picture the entire thing in my brain. And it still gives me a chuckle. ---
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/10 "2016-04-24T01:09:27Z")
As God as my witness, I thought HMMWVs could fly… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/11 "2016-04-24T01:10:20Z")
Maxim 11: Everything is air-droppable at least once. –From _The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries_-Schlock Mercenary ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/12 "2016-04-24T02:26:39Z")
I thought HummVees bounced. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/13 "2016-04-24T04:07:15Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > I thought HummVees bounced. The parts do. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/14 "2016-04-24T04:31:09Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > I thought HummVees bounced. You’re thinking of bumbles. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/15 "2016-04-24T05:06:23Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > You’re thinking of bumbles. Indeed. The Army needed a reindeer who could fly those HummVees off of those C-130s. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-parachute-drop-goes-very-wrong/752906/16 "2016-04-24T06:21:13Z")
Brand new, fully armored Humvees straight off the production line cost $200k. 30-year old Cold War relics with no armor and no equipment that barely run, such as you might use for air drop practice, do not.’ Still a great video though.