History Main / ChuteSabotage

See also InconvenientParachuteDeployment and WrongParachuteGag. Compare and contrast DeathFlight.

* An episode of ''Series/Ultraman80'' have 80's human form, Takeshi Yamato, forced to jettison his plane after being trapped with Alien Baltan. However, Baltan followed and deliberately use its pincers to cut the strings on Takeshi's chute, necessitating him to henshin into Ultraman 80 (with Baltan turning giant-sized for the compulsory BehemothBattle concluding every episode).

* In the [[Literature/JaineAustenMysteries Jaine Austen]] mystery ''Death of a Bachelorette'', which takes place on a ''[[Series/TheBachelor "Bachelor"]]'' knockoff, the book's victim, contestant Hope Harper, is on a skydiving date with the show's bachelor, Spencer Dalworth VII. His chute opens up in spite of his raging incompetence. Hope's, not so much.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': In "Hung Out to Dry", a Marine dies during a training jump. The investigation reveals that his shroud lines had been coated with an acidic cleaning agent, causing the fibres to disintegrate.

* Note that strafing a bailed-out combat aviator while under parachute - or strafing his canopy so he plummets to his death - is a genuine [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar War Crime]]. The rationale is that he is unarmed and thus a non-combatant. The same does not apply to paratroopers, which are armed.

** In "The Descent of Man", the near-death of a skydiver whose parachute was sabotaged turns out to be connected with the deaths of two men who were killed from the sky. [[spoiler: The skydiver actually sabotaged his own chute in an attempt to commit suicide out of guilt over his involvement in the two murders. [[BungledSuicide It doesn't work]].]]

* ''Franchise/DocSavage'': At the end of ''The Laugh of Death'', the BigBad tries to escape a fight on an airplane by jumping out with a parachute on his back. Doc's assistant Monk plunges a knife into the parachute pack as the villain is jumping, then innocently notes that the man's parachute didn't open.

* In the ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' fifth season episode “Bang Bang Shoot Chute” the VictimOfTheWeek is discovered to have had his chute sabotaged and have been shot by two separate murderers.

* Happened in the US military in 2003 - a Marine was sentenced to twenty years after being caught sabotaging his service mates' parachutes and attempting to frame another innocent Marine. [[https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1090197 See the article.]]
* In 2018, a British soldier was [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44241364 convicted]] of trying to kill his wife by sabotging her parachutes.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "First Night", a gang of kidnappers include in the ransom demand an RAF aircraft out of the country equipped with twelve parachutes, with the RAF crew made to jump first as insurance against this trope.

* Happened in the US military in 2003 - a Marine was sentenced to twenty years after being caught sabotaging his service mates' parachutes and attempting to frame another innocent Marine. See the [[https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1090197/ article]].