Paratrooper Survives Chute Failure at 3,300 Feet

[Jahnava Nitai Das 2]

Paratrooper Survives Chute Failure at 3,300 Feet

Mon Nov 4, 8:58 AM ET

 

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Yugoslav Army paratrooper survived a drop from an altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) after both his parachutes malfunctioned, the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti reported on Friday.

 

 

The paper said 40-year-old Dragan Curcic escaped with minor cuts and bruises after his main and spare parachutes first failed to open and then became tangled when they opened simultaneously during an exercise on Tuesday.

 

 

"He went through the roof of an army building. Only God himself saved him from certain death," an eyewitness said.

 

 

Curcic, a Yugoslav vice-champion with more than 3,000 jumps to his name, performed another parachute drop on Thursday, this time without problems.

 

 

Another Yugoslav holds the record for surviving a fall from the greatest altitude without a parachute. Air hostess Vesna Vulovic plunged 33,330 feet into a snowbound forest in Czechoslovakia in 1972 when the airliner she was on exploded.