A US military officer suffered life-threatening injuries after falling more than 150 feet from the rafters of the Alamodome in a horrifying pregame accident on Saturday night.
The unnamed Air Force member was one of four performing a fast rope demonstration from the ceiling ahead of the Navy-UTSA football game when he slipped down the rope and slammed into the turf at terrifying speed.
Clips filmed from multiple angles showed the officer hitting the ground to leave thousands of onlookers stunned at the San Antonio, Texas arena, before medics quickly rushed to his aid.
He was carted off the field and rushed to a local hospital, according to initial reports from the San Antonio Express-News.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, a UTSA spokesperson said: ‘We are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred at the start of tonight’s football game. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the soldier who was affected, his family and his military colleagues.
‘We recognize that members of our campus community may be emotionally affected by this incident and are activating wellbeing services to support our faculty, staff and students.’
Video captured by San Antonio resident James Larken Smith showed the officer hit the turf
Medics rushed to the stricken man’s aid after he fell around 150ft from the stadium rafters
The condition and identity of the man are currently unknown, and the Daily Mail has reached out to both teams for further information.
According to News 4 San Antonio, an official with the San Antonio Fire Department revealed that the patient was transported to a medical facility as ‘priority one’.
The Texas Department of State Health Services defines that as the patient having an ‘acutely life-threatening illness or injury and is unstable’.
The game was delayed while medics attended to the man, whose stunt was due to be part of the coin toss, on UTSA’s annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans night.
The four service members involved in the botched demonstration were from Detachment 2 of the 6th Combat Training Squadron, according to the Express-News.
The squadron trains tactical air controllers for the Air Force, and part of their training involves learning how to rappel from more than 100ft in the air from helicopters.
A military member rappels from the stadium rafters in a previous demonstration, posted on social media by UTSA
It is unclear how many fans were inside the stadium to see the accident unfold, but the official attendance of the game was later revealed to be 23,297.
When the man slipped down the rope and was left stricken on the turf, UTSA staffers surrounded him in a semicircle as medics tended to him for around 10 minutes.
Brad Millwater, a reporter inside the stadium, then said he was ‘carted off very quickly’, before event staff continued preparations for the football team to enter the field. He added: ‘I can’t describe the feeling in this building right now.’
The game began as planned shortly after, but was delayed further by a fire alarm that was quickly revealed to be a ‘false alarm’.
