"Krone" was there

Lower Austria: Jump from helicopter as a test of courage

(Bild: krone.tv)

On one of the last summer days of the year, the sun temporarily darkened for the bathers at Lake Neufeld near Wiener Neustadt: an eight-ton "Black Hawk" helicopter hovered five meters above the surface of the water. And dropped its human cargo in the middle of the lake.  

On board: eight midshipmen from the Theresian Military Academy, who had only started their studies a week earlier and were immediately thrown into the deep end. Even though the altitude was perfectly feasible, the new environmental influences caused tension: the two loud helicopter engines just above the soldiers' heads, the uncertainty on the outward flight, the "downwash" of the rotor, i.e. the downdrafts that the blades create when hovering and whirling up glistening spray. 

Getting to know your personal limits
After the jump in full clothing, the participants still had to reach the shore, change their clothes and set off on an 18-kilometer march back to the barracks. But the focus was less on the march itself.

(Bild: krone.tv)

"We try to push the prospective officers to their personal stress limits," explains Colonel Horst Stocker, head of training for this section. Head dives into the water in the dark, backward drops from a 3-meter board or even jumps from hovering helicopters are good ways to create a slight state of anxiety that has to be overcome. "We get to know our new midshipmen better, they get to know themselves better and it also brings the group closer together," Stocker told the Krone.

For the Milak students, it was 9 p.m. that day before they saw the barracks gate again. Instead, they jumped out of a hovering military helicopter into a lake. Who can say that about themselves?