While out shooting the sunset, a Singapore photographer got a pleasant surprise when he spotted commandos performing a parachute jump exercise from a plane.
He managed to capture images of 10 soldiers carrying out the airborne exercise, describing it as a rare sight to witness.
Source: Quek Song Chye on Facebook
62-year-old Quek Song Chye told MS News that he’d been photographing the sunset along Geylang East Avenue 1 when he noticed something unusual.
At around 6pm on 23 June, he spotted a military plane overhead, which he identified as a Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
Image courtesy of Quek Song Chye
Mr Quek watched as the aircraft circled around Geylang East, McPherson Estate, Kaki Bukit, and Paya Lebar.
Suspecting that the plane was preparing for a paradrop near Paya Lebar Air Base, he quickly turned his camera towards it.
Sure enough, after circling twice, the C-130 opened its doors, and commandos began jumping out one by one.
Image courtesy of Quek Song Chye
“I knew that these were commandos doing their airborne training because in Singapore, only the commandos have airborne training,” Mr Quek explained.
Indeed, the Singapore Commandos and the Naval Diving Unit (NDU) are the only local formations trained to carry out military parachute jumps.
In total, 10 commandos leapt from the aircraft, swiftly deploying their parachutes as they descended.
Image courtesy of Quek Song Chye
Mr Quek eagerly snapped away throughout the encounter.
“Naturally, I was very excited as it’s not easy to spot such activities,” he told MS News, noting that such sightings are rare since training schedules are typically kept under wraps.
In fact, he’d only witnessed an airborne exercise once before, while driving to work one morning.
His Facebook post featuring a photo of the parachutes has racked up more than 800 likes at press time, a testament, he believes, to just how rare a sighting this was.
Image courtesy of Quek Song Chye
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Featured image adapted from Quek Song Chye on Facebook and courtesy of Quek Song Chye.