Quote:
Originally Posted by motto
This particular day, the weather was somewhat wild and as we waited in a side street, lined up for the parade, a stick of paratroopers was inadvisably dropped, supposedly to land in the arena. The wind speed was badly miscalculated and the paras descended all over the area.
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The exact same thing happened at the Showgrounds many years ago. I was just a kid at the time and my father took my brother and me to the Royal Melbourne Show at night, and he insisted on watching the tent pegging in the arena, when all we wanted was to buy showbags and go on rides! Anyway there was an Army parachutist display scheduled as well, and we sat in the grandstand listening to the announcer on loudspeaker telling the crowd what was happening in the air, and peering into the night sky waiting for parachutes to appear. Presumably most of them landed outside the arena, but I remember a couple landed safely inside on the grass, then another one drifted across and slammed into the grandstand roof then fell straight down onto the hard clay trotting track. It was quite a distance from where we were sitting but we still heard the thud. Everyone waited for 20 minutes or so while the ambulance attended to him on the ground, while the announcer tried to put a brave face on things with comments like "these Army guys are tough." Eventually he was stretchered into the ambulance and it drove around to the exit, whereupon the Show continued as normal. Next day we learned he had died on the spot. It didn't seem real to me as a kid, I couldn't believe I'd seen a man killed in front of my eyes. Looking back now I can't believe they'd allow jumps at night, let alone in windy conditions.