IDF Colonel Dror Platin, who heads the army’s parachute training school, was seriously injured in a jump accident on Sunday. He was flown by military chopper to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer Hospital, where he was rushed into surgery, listed in serious condition.

Platin is in charge of the Tel Nof training facility, where paratroopers and other soldiers are certified in parachuting. He has logged no less than 80 jumps, and by all accounts, is considered to be quite proficient in the art of parachuting. Platin is scheduled to complete his term in his current post in about a month.

Sunday’s jump was a simulation of a jump used in case one needs to eject himself from a situation.

It appears that the colonel dislocated a shoulder in the air, and as a result, was unable to open his main chute. His reserve chute did open at 1,000 feet as it should, but due to his dislocated shoulder, he was not able to control his fall, causing him to land hard, slammed into the ground. It is believed the complications of the jump led to him landing in an altered mental state, which became apparent to all when they saw him slam onto the ground, entangled in the cords of the chute assembly without moving.

According to the first persons on the scene, the colonel was conscious when they approached him, but somewhat confused, but he did tell them that he dislocated a shoulder. He did sustain multiple factures of his lower extremities.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)