Army parachutist dies in exercise

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – An Army parachutist died after his parachute failed to open during an airborne exercise with US military forces here yesterday morning.

Senior Superintendent Nicanor Targa, security and fire department chief of the Clark Development Corp., said the victim, Sgt. Edwin Pascua, jumped from a C-130 plane with an apparently defectively arranged parachute.

He crashed with his parachute still unopened at the “drop zone” at the back of the mothballed Expo Pilipino theme park here.