A “gravely dangerous” tragedy was narrowly avoided after a pre-match malfunction resulted in a parachutist crashing into the awning of the Stadium de Toulouse prior to the Investec Champions Cup tie against Sale Sharks.
Kick-off was delayed by 40 minutes after the parachutist, named Captain Yannick Trouillet, was left hanging helplessly around 30 metres above the ground. He had been supposed to deliver the match ball before the accident.
The fire brigade rescued the situation more than 25 minutes after the scheduled kick-off time, averting what could have been a horrific incident in front of thousands of watching fans.
In a somewhat comical scene the Toulouse mascot, dressed in a lion costume, sprinted to strip off post protectors in an effort to soften Trouillet’s potential landing. Both teams also contributed tackle shields in a make-shift safety effort.
Fans cleared from underneath the parachutist. And that's the Toulouse mascot helping to deliver some post protectors. https://t.co/U49oEAHlFKpic.twitter.com/jZ7gKBrBoC
— Charlie Morgan (@CharlieFelix) April 6, 2025
As the situation became more alarming, spectators were cleared from underneath Trouillet and a large inflatable was brought in from outside the venue and laid down.
The players, who had moved from the pitch into the changing room at about 2.55pm [3.55pm local time], five minutes before the planned kick-off, did not re-emerge.
Fire engine here. Inflatable game moved to the seats https://t.co/rkS7yvih1Upic.twitter.com/bKZRodmU0Q
— Charlie Morgan (@CharlieFelix) April 6, 2025
Loud cheers greeted the entrance of a fire engine at around 3.20pm [4.20pm local time] and two fireguards were lifted on a cherry-picker to intercept Trouillet and untangle the parachute.
Asked about the delay and what was going through his mind, Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson initially had a one-word answer: “Panic”.
“Lads just wanted to know what’s going on,” he continued. “You have a 3½ build-up and you try to regulate emotion levels so they don’t peak, trough, peak, trough, and you get adrenal burnout potentially.
“So I had to keep doing shuttle runs from the sideline to [tournament organisers] EPCR [European Professional Club Rugby] and eventually we agreed, after we took our tackle pads over – we can smile now but it was gravely dangerous – but as soon as the fire engine got him down, we had 15 minutes and then we could plan. There’s no doubt there was a little bit of disruption.”
