A bizarre military blunder was captured in dramatic footage as a US soldier fell from a Chinook helicopter after hanging his legs off the back of the aircraft.
In a widely circulated video, flight engineer Shane Sutton is seen casually sitting on the aircraft’s edge before the plane, which was travelling across the desert floor, dramatically hit a ‘wind pocket coming off the mountains’.
Sutton told DailyMail.com the accident occurred in the training area in Fort Bliss, Texas, which led military higher ups to order the servicemen to ‘change policies’ about sitting on the powerful helicopter’s ramps.
Thankfully, the soldier was ‘strapped in’ when he plummeted from the aircraft, and he admitted he only suffered bruising which left him ‘super sore for a few days’.
An outlandish video posted to Instagram saw US Army flight engineer Shane Sutton fly out the back of an aircraft after hanging his legs off the ramp
After hitting a bump as the aircraft travelled along the desert floor, Sutton is seen hitting his head before dramatically falling from the back of the plane
The viral footage saw Sutton initially hanging his feet out the back of the Chinook helicopter, which are estimated to cost up to $39 million.
After the 4,700 horsepower aircraft hits turbulence, Sutton was sent flying, and hit his head on the roof of the helicopter’s hanger.
He is then seen dramatically falling from the back and into the desert floor, while his fellow soldiers watch on in shock.
The 26-year-old has posted several images to his social media showing him dangerously hanging out the back of aircrafts.
Admitting that the video didn’t fly under the radar and was seen by ‘some pretty high up people’ in the military, he said it didn’t land him in hot water.
‘They let my leadership handle the situation’, he added, as the military hierarchy ‘had us change our policies’.
However, Sutton, who served on the 501st Combat Aviation Brigade, insisted the accident didn’t stop him from dangling his legs off again.
‘I still sit on the ramp a lot,’ he said, as he maintained that although servicemen are ‘allowed to sit there’ the accident meant they had to change ‘specifications as to when’.
Sutton has posted numerous images from his army days online showing him inside the military aircrafts
The flight engineer admitted the in-flight fiasco earned him several nicknames, including ‘Slingload Sutton’ and ‘Sky Surfer’
Sutton described his tour of the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan as a ‘good deployment with lots of amazing memories’
Sutton, from El Paso, Texas, served on one rotation into Europe, before he was sent on a tour to the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, which he said on his Instagram was a ‘good deployment with lots of amazing memories’.
And according to his social media, Sutton has spent over 700 hours flying in Chinook helicopters, including in Alaska, Afghanistan and Texas.
Noting his widely-seen blunder, he shared online that it made his year one to remember, after ‘falling out of a helicopter and going viral’.
‘Everybody makes fun of me for it,’ he added. ‘But its great, all of my friends always send me the video’.
He added that he earned several nicknames after the fiasco, including ‘Slingload Sutton’ and ‘Sky Surfer’.
Sutton served on one rotation into Europe, before he was sent on a tour to the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan
Sutton has earned nicknames after the fiasco, including Slingload Sutton and Sky Surfer
