MANILA, Philippines \u2014 A Philippine\u00a0air\u00a0force\u00a0paratrooper who parachuted from a C-130 plane in an exercise with U.S.\u00a0forces\u00a0died Thursday after a wind gust blew him out to sea instead of an airport drop zone, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Filipino paratrooper from a special\u00a0air\u00a0force\u00a0operations unit was rescued 15 minutes after the accident at the Subic Bay free port, a former U.S.\u00a0naval\u00a0base northwest of Manila, but he died later in a hospital, Philippine\u00a0army\u00a0spokesman Capt. Celeste Frank Sayson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 3,500 Filipino troops and 5,000 American\u00a0military\u00a0personnel are participating in the Balikatan or shoulder-to-shoulder combat exercises that started Monday. The 11-day maneuvers aim to prepare U.S. and Philippine troops to quickly respond to a range of potential crises, including in the disputed South China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense Secretary Ash Carter will fly to the Philippines next week to witness some of the maneuvers, underscoring the importance Washington puts on the joint combat drills that have been staged 32 times by the treaty allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accident prevention is part of the meticulous planning for the joint exercises by both\u00a0militaries, but mishaps have happened. In 2000, a Filipino\u00a0marine\u00a0was run over by an amphibious vehicle and died during a beach landing exercise in Cavite province south of Manila.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Philippine military says a Filipino paratrooper who parachuted from a C-130 plane with U.S. forces has died after a wind gust blew him out to sea instead of the airport drop zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":88,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1432],"class_list":["post-66945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EGJZP676D5FLTPKPIAOAMWDNNQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2016\/04\/07\/philippine-paratrooper-dies-during-exercise-with-u-s-forces\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n