The Men Who Fell to Earth

Former paratrooper John McDonald tells the history of military parachuting. He tells his own parachuting story, which ended in 1981 when he and his heavy equipment tumbled to earth. John meets one of the last survivors of the ill-fated Operation Colossus, Britain's first ever airborne assault in February 1941, and a survivor of the last mass airborne paratroop drop over Suez. He also considers the members of the so-called Caterpillar Club, the men and women who have had to abandon their stricken aircraft and make a jump for it.