Eight soldiers fall to death in Aceh exercise

[bemildred]

Eight Indonesian Kopassus Special Forces soldiers plunged more than 200 metres
to their deaths when a crew flying their helicopter cut the rope on which the eight
were suspended.

Scores of villagers in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province watched the soldiers fall
to their deaths about 300 metres off shore near the town of Lhokseumawe where
they were training for a routine they were to perform in yesterday's annual military
celebrations.

According to the army's spokesman in Lhokseumawe, Colonel Yani Basuki, the
soldiers were performing a final practice for an exercise in which they are all
attached with harnesses to a rope hanging from a helicopter flying them to a location
where they are lowered to the ground.

But during Saturday's exercise, a blast of wind rocked the Bell helicopter, making it
unstable. The crew on board had no option other than to cut the rope to which the
men were attached.

Age.AU

[soothsayer]

1. ye gads

That's horrible all the way around.