Wayward Red Devil delays kick-off

12 April 2012

A red faced parachutist caused a 45-minute delay at a football stadium by accidentally landing on the roof.

The unnamed member of the Parachute Regiment's Red Devils watched as six colleagues successfully landed on the pitch to present the match ball at Burnley FC's Turf Moor ground.

He wanted to follow on with aplomb.

But a gust of wind blew the final parachutist - named only as Ben by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service - onto the top of the Cricket Field stand.

The unfortunate soldier suffered minor cuts and bruises as one of his feet pierced the asbestos roof.

An aerial platform ladder had to be called for from nearby Accrington to rescue him from nearly 70ft up.

Burnley station manager Dave Jackson said: "He was very embarrassed when we got him down and his colleagues were waiting for him.

"With it being Burnley's first game of the season at home the crowd weren't very happy with it being delayed.

"But they gave a big cheer when he was helped down and I'm sure it all raised a few smiles."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in