A soldier avoided serious injury after his parachute failed to open during a training exercise, forcing him to deploy his emergency chute at the very last minute.

Army recruits in the Airborne Division in Alaska, USA were practicing jumping out of a plane when the incident happened.

The terrifying footage, recorded by a fellow recruit, shows the soldier plummeting to the ground as his parachute gets tangled.

He spins as he free falls with one soldier heard saying: "Pull your reserve!"

Just hundreds of feet above the ground, the recruit manages to pull the cord of his emergency chute to the cheer of his fellow soldiers.

The incident happened in April 2023.