9 Spanish Military Personnel Injured in Landing Drill

An army plane taking part in a drill left 9 personnel on board hospitalised including the pilot.

The incident took place when a T21 plane from the Spanish Air Force was participating in a drill near the town of Jaca in the Pyrenees in the northern Spanish region of Aragon.

In the video, the plane can be seen coming in to land when it bounces off the tarmac and appears to lurch forwards.

The aircraft then bounces again on the tarmac before seemingly stabilising.

However, further down the runway the plane bounces up one more time and local media report the pilot could not keep the aircraft on the runway and it ended up in a ditch.

The plane had four crew members and six members of the Medical Unite Of Air Evacuation on board as it came in to land.

Emergency services went to the scene and found nine of the 10 people on board had suffered injuries.

All nine of those injured were taken to Jaca hospital. Local media report the pilot was seriously injured with a blow to the head while the other eight only suffered light injuries.

Seven have now been discharged whilst the pilot and another of those who were injured remain in hospital under observation.

General Tennant Miguel Alcaniz, head of the Emergency Militar Unit (Unidad de Emergencia Militar-UME) said: “The plane was about to land at the airport and it went out off the runway and into a ditch.

“We do not know the causes of the accident, we know that an investigative commission from the Air Force has come here to investigate the case and that the Civil Guard are also investigating. It was nothing compared with what could have happened.”

The drill carried out by the UME Aragon 2019 saw around 3,500 people involved including army officers, the police, firefighters, social agents, doctors, psychologists and judges in the area simulating serious flooding, burst dams, electricity cuts, avalanches and traffic accidents.

There are no updates on the condition of those injured in the incident.