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U.S. Army Humvee Drop Fail: Video Showing Three Vehicles Plummeting From The Sky Goes Viral [Video]

By Pam Wright
Published on: 08:50 PST, Apr 22, 2016

A video of a failed U.S. Army Humvee drop has gone viral.

It appears the U.S. Army was attempting to transport three of the armored vehicles to the Hohenfels Military Base in Germany when the Humvees were inadvertently dropped several hundred feet to the ground, where they crashed into a million pieces.

The Humvees, which can cost as much as $220,000, were dropped out of the back of C-130 Hercules transport planes, but their parachutes failed to open and they crashed to the ground instead.

A video of the incident, captured and posted on Facebook and subsequently on YouTube, has garnered more than a 1.6 million views since it was posted on Tuesday.

Fair warning: There are expletives captured in the video.

The video begins with a fly-past, where the planes slow down to speeds of approximately 160 mph to drop the heavy cargo.

As the Humvee payloads begin to drop, the men capturing the video, presumed to be soldiers from the 173rd Airborne, soon realize that there is something wrong with the deployment and erupt into laughter as the first Humvee comes crashing down.

By the time the video climaxes, three Humvees have crashed from the sky into heaps of twisted metal on the ground. The whole incident takes less than two minutes.

The men shooting the video are apparently watching as various other vehicles and gear are dropped gently down to solid ground.

But when the first Humvee crashes to the ground, the men are soon heard whooping, laughing hysterically and shouting “Yeeessss.”

They laughter escalates as the second Humvee plunges to the ground from another plane just moments later. One soldier can’t seem to contain his laughter and lets loose with a string of expletives.

Seconds later, the third and final Humvee plummets from the sky after its parachute fails, with the men remarking that it appeared to catch fire after the bumpy landing.

According to Tactical Air Network, there is specific protocol to safely drop heavy equipment.

“To airdrop a Humvee, the vehicles are loaded onto metal pallets, sometimes with the use of a crane. Three G-11B parachutes with a diameter of 100 ft. apiece and a weight of 275 pounds are strapped to the Humvees, while honeycombed pads and pieces of lightweight wood are stacked underneath the vehicles to absorb the shock of a normal landing.”

Fox Sports reports that the loadmaster of the C-130 opens the rear cargo door when pilots slow the aircraft down to the required 160 mph. A small drogue chute attached to the vehicle pallet is released when the cargo doors open.

“The drag of the drogue chute yanks the Humvee out of the aircraft and into the sky, its G-11Bs deploying soon afterwards for a presumably comfortable float down to Earth.”

Apparently, the expected “comfortable drop” never occurred over the Hohenfels Military Base in Germany.

Officials with the Army were none-too-pleased with the failed Humvee drop or the video posted on Facebook and YouTube.

Army spokesman Maj. Juan Martinez told the Army Times that an investigation of the “highest priority” was initiated.

“The specific malfunctions that occurred on this day are under investigation. There were multiple rehearsals and inspections of the equipment prior to mission execution. We cannot speculate on what went wrong until the investigation is complete.”

Martinez added that he does not know who shot the video of the failed Humvee drop, their role in the exercise, whether disciplinary proceedings would take place.

[Image via YouTube]

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