07/12/2011 // WPB, FL, USA // Personal Injury Lawyers News // Nicole Howley
Great Falls, MT — A soldier was killed in a parachute accident near Fort Harrison, while conducting training exercises. The fatal parachute accident occurred around 3:45 p.m., Sunday, July 10, 2011, when the solider jumped out of a C-17 aircraft, reported the Helena Independent Record.
According to the Lewis and Clark County Coroner Mark Nelson identified the victim as Francis Campion, a paratrooper from the West Virginia National Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group.
Campion was supposed to land at Marshall Field at Fort Harrison after jumping from the aircraft, but instead, it is believed a gust of wind pushed him and caused him to end up on a roof.
“What probably happened, as best as we can determine, is there were four people in the aircraft that jumped, and he was the last one,” Nelson said on Tuesday to the Helena Independent Record. “He was getting winds at the end of the drop zone — not big winds, just probably a small updraft — and went up instead of down. By the time he got back to more stable winds, he ended up on the on the building roof.”
A gust of wind then may have lifted Campion’s parachute again, which pulled him off the roof of the building, causing him to fall 24 feet to the pavement below. The fall left him with massive head, neck and bodily injuries.
Responding emergency crews rushed him to St. Peter’s Hospital, where he was then airlifted to Benefis Hospital in Great Falls for further treatment. While reviving medical treatment at Benefis, attending physicians pronounced him dead.
The Montana National Guard is investigating the parachute accident.
Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for wrongful-death lawyers.
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