The Brazilian Air Force Academy (AFA) performed instruction for situations of aircraft abandonment in a safe manner
CCAER, by Capitão Leitão – Air Force Agency: Capitão Alcoforado
The Air Force Academy (AFA), located in Pirassununga (SP), held, from March 13 to 25, the Emergency Jump Instruction (ISE) for the first year cadets of the Air Force, Infantry and Lieutenant Officers’ Training Courses. The activity, which is part of the AFA’s curriculum and obligatory for all cadets, consists of preparing the military to safely abandon a military aircraft in flight, using a military parachute.
The entire preparation and jump are conducted by military personnel from the Airborne Rescue Squadron (EAS) of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), the PARASAR, as it is popularly known, and by AFA’s parachute jumpers. For this, all the coordination is done by the Military Instruction Section of the Air Force Cadet Corps (CCAER).
So that everything takes place within the strictest safety standards, the preparation takes place during a whole week before the jump, with mass exercises on the procedures inside and outside the aircraft, during the jump and during landing, all of this while still on the ground. After completing this training, the cadets perform the jump in flight from a C-105 Amazonas aircraft, from the First Squadron of the Fifteenth Aviation Group (1/15th GAV) – Jaguar Squadron.
“The Emergency Jump activity, besides marking the beginning of the Air Force Cadet’s journey, is an opportunity to exercise, in practice, one of the noblest attributes of our Honor Code: Courage. We, Commanding Officers, by being able to participate with them in this feat, jumping with the class, besides encouraging them to overcome fear, we witnessed another victory for the Athos Class,” explained Infantry Captain Raphael de Almeida Leitão, who jumped with the Cadets.
Cadet Aviator Kalil Lopes dos Santos, one of the first participants to perform the training and jump, recounted his challenging experience. “During the week of Emergency Jump Instruction, we experience an intense routine, with repetitive exercises, so that the procedures adopted in the aircraft and during the jump are well consolidated. The PARASAR instructors are very professional and the knowledge they pass on to us will never be forgotten,” he said.
The same experience was expressed by Cadet Aviator Suzana Aparecida Vieira Cordeiro, who said that the priority was to perform the procedures taught without letting the nervousness take over. “As soon as I left the aircraft, I was faced with the giant abyss of the launch zone landscape. It didn’t take four seconds for the parachute to be fully open and an inexplicable peace overwhelmed me. Jumping, in full flight from a military aircraft, together with my classmates, was an experience I could not find anywhere else but at the Air Force Academy,” he concluded.
Photos: Private Adher and Private H. Pereira / CCAER