A member of the U.S. Army Golden Knights jumps out of a UV-18C during an aerial performance for the Thunder Over the Rock Air and Space Show at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., Oct. 27, 2018. (Rhett Isbell/U.S. Air Force) FILE(HOMESTEAD, Fla.) — Three elite soldiers from the U.S. Army Parachute Team were injured early Tuesday morning during a training accident at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Florida, according to the Army.
The soldiers were participating in a low-altitude night training operation around 4 a.m. when the incident occurred.
A U.S. defense official told ABC News that two of the soldiers are in “very serious condition,” with the third soldier in “serious condition.” They are being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in Miami.
“The incident is under investigation at this time,” the Army said in a statement.
The soldiers were members of the Golden Knights, the Army’s competitive skydiving team that frequently does demonstrations at sporting events and air shows. While based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the team conducts its winter training at Homestead from mid-January to mid-March.
The official described the Golden Knights as “the best of the best.”
In November, the team parachuted into the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants Monday Night Football game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. And in October, they performed an aerial demonstration at the Thunder Over the Rock Air and Space Show at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.
There were are record number of elite military airborne-related deaths in 2015, according to Navy Times, but that was followed by a sharp drop in the following two years.
In 2015, two military parachute jumpers, including one Golden Knight, were hospitalized after colliding in midair at the Chicago Air and Water Show.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.