Parachutist injured in hard landing during Nunavut military training
A person taking part in a military training exercise in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, has been injured after an apparent parachuting mishap and a “hard landing” on the sea ice.
It happened at around 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday as part of Operation Nanook, the Canadian Armed Forces’ annual Arctic training exercises.
Several people could be seen jumping from a plane near the community’s dock. After their parachutes opened, one of them could then be seen drifting from the rest of the group.
That jumper’s parachute appeared to be spinning as the person came down quickly and landed on the ice.
In a written statement on Tuesday, military spokesperson Fadi Khalil said the injured person, who is part of the Armed Forces’ major air disaster team, experienced a “hard landing” during the parachute decent.
Snowmobiles were then seen rushing to the site where the person landed. They carried the person back to the shoreline where an ambulance and other vehicles were waiting.
Khalil said medical personnel on hand at the scene provided immediate care, and the person was then taken to the local medical facility.
“The member’s condition has been assessed as fair, and the outlook for recovery is favourable,” Khalil said. He said no other details about the person’s condition will be released, citing privacy concerns.
“While the Canadian Armed Forces takes steps to reduce these risks, they can never be zero,” he wrote.
He also said there will be an investigation into what happened.
“Until that investigation is complete, the Canadian Armed Forces will not speculate on the cause,” he said.
The training drill, which involved jumping and also dropping heavy equipment from aircraft, was to practice responding to a major air disaster. It had already been delayed due to low visibility.
Other training exercises on Tuesday were scheduled to go ahead.
With files from Saloni Bhugra
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