The scene: Poland. The happening: Anakonda 2016. The skinny: the largest joint military exercise since the Cold War was still frigid. The players: NATO (30,000 soldiers including those from the United States).

The drop: a Polish paratrooper encounters a deadly situation when, during an airborne mission, he realizes that their first safety plume is a complete dud.

This from Task & Purpose (via the Aviationist):

… during one of those missions, a Polish trooper’s parachute failed to open, forcing him to deploy his reserve only a few hundred feet above the ground. It’s the ultimate nightmare scenario for anyone who’s ever jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Fortunately, everything appears to have turned out alright.

You can see the near-disaster in the clip below (keep an eye on the middle left to the soldier strapped to the white chute that’s not quite open — kinda looks like a brand new tall kitchen garbage bag) …