Humvees Fell From the Sky, Broke Into Smithereens

The US Army is investigating what went wrong during an April 11 training exercise, during which three Humvees fell from airplanes and smashed to the ground. No one was hurt in the April 11 incident, which happened at the Hohenfels training area in Germany, Army spokesman Maj. Juan Martinez tells the Army Times. The exercise involved dropping some 150 bundles, vehicles, and weapons systems from aircraft. All was going well … until the Humvees, one after another, slipped from their rigging and plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground. The mishap was captured on video (warning: language), on which observers can be heard laughing. One person says, "It's on fire. Do we need to call that up?"

"We cannot speculate on what went wrong until the investigation is complete," Martinez says. According to NBC News, each Humvee costs up to $220,000. Martinez says the investigation "will receive the highest priority," which, per the Times, is an indication of the "severity of the issue." NBC notes that it's unclear whether the accident was a result of bad equipment or human error. Martinez says the Army is working to figure out who shot the video, which has since gone viral. "As far as disciplinary actions are concerned," he says, "nothing has been decided." (More Germany stories.)