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British soldier cheats death after smashing through a ROOF and landing in a kitchen when his parachute failed to open fully after he leapt 15,000ft out of plane in training exercise over California

--The British parachutist spiraled out of control during the exercise in Atascadero, California

--Soldier jumped from 15,000ft but his parachute failed to fully deploy before he used a reserve

--The homeowners were out when he crashed through the tiled roof and landed in a kitchen at 5pm

--Incredibly, he only sustained minor injuries in the fall and has been treated in hospital

By JACK NEWMAN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 04:07 EDT, 12 July 2021 | UPDATED: 07:59 EDT, 12 July 2021

A British soldier has cheated death after crashing into someone's roof and falling into their kitchen when his parachute failed to fully deploy during a training exercise in California.

The parachutist jumped out of a plane from 15,000ft in a High Altitude Low Opening exercise known as Halo, which is used by the SAS and SBS for covert missions in hostile territory.

But the soldier started to spiral out of control when the parachute failed to fully deploy over the skies of Atascadero.

He deployed his reserve parachute but it was too late for him to be able to reach the designated drop zone and he continued his rapid descent towards the ground.

'It's a miracle in my estimation, really. I mean, who lands like that without a parachute and lives?,' neighbor Rose Martin, who discovered the soldier, told KSBY.

Residents in the town about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles called 911 after seeing him falling before he smashed into the house.

'I was in shock. I'm like, what?,' Martin said. 'So I ran in to make sure he was okay and I checked on him and his eyes were open but I wasn't sure if there were any injuries. I didn't want anyone to move him.

The impact left a huge hole in the tiled roof of the bungalow as the soldier fell through the loft and into the kitchen.

A picture shows the soldier in a sitting position, surrounded by broken tiles and with his parachute still attached. Someone can be seen standing over him as he removes a glove.

The homeowners were out at the time of the incident at 4.55pm on July 6.

The soldier, wearing British special forces uniform, was pictured in the kitchen surrounded by dust and debris in the house, still attached to his harness.

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The parachutist jumped out of a plane from 15,000ft in a High Altitude Low Opening exercise known as Halo

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The parachutist jumped out of a plane from 15,000ft in a High Altitude Low Opening exercise known as Halo, which is used by the SAS and SBS for covert missions in hostile territory.

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Originally posted by divil:
The article is a bit confusing, did he pull his reserve too late for it to fully deploy ...

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Originally posted by a1abdj:
12,000-15,000 is generally the regular altitude for standard skydiving.

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Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
On one hand you can say he wasn't without a parachute entirely. He'd be dead.

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Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
What must the chances be that he hits in such an angle as to be parallel to --but between two-- roof rafters and attic joists? That is a miracle of chances, ...

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Originally posted by sigcrazy7:


What must the chances be that he hits in such an angle as to be parallel to --but between two-- roof rafters and attic joists? That is a miracle of chances, for if he had hit at a different angle, I bet he'd be all broken up. I understand that California framing methods can be a little flimsy, but not so flimsy as to allow him through a couple of rafters unharmed.

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Originally posted by Expert308:So does this mean that the SAS now considers California to be hostile territory? Glad the soldier is going to be OK!

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Originally posted by ensigmatic:


Not necessarily. People have survived hitting the ground w/o a chute. It's rare and, when they do, they're usually pretty messed up, but it happens.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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The parachutist jumped out of a plane from 15,000ft in a High Altitude Low Opening exercise known as Halo

12,000-15,000 is generally the regular altitude for standard skydiving. He was only about half way to where he needed to be for it to be a HALO.

I see his lines going up to the roof. He had something slowing him down.

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Originally posted by Redleg06:
The article did not say what chute sustem the soldier was using, however, a Google search shows the T11 military chute with a descent rate of ~18-19 fps and the T11R (reserve) with a descent rate of ~26 fps. That's just an example of the differences in descent rates between the primary and reserve of some military chutes. So even if the reserve was fully deployed, he would have been coming down quite a bit faster that he would under the main canopy.

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Originally posted by Rey HRH:
One story I remember where the guy survived, attributed his survival to whatever body rolling maneuver they are trained to do.