Marine survives Osprey plane crash in Afghanistan and has amazing photo to prove it (UPDATED)

 

 

An astounding photo of an Osprey plane crash in Afghanistan with a cigarette-smoking, soda-drinking marine standing in front of it, quickly became a viral sensation on the Internet today. As amazing as the photo is with its cool-as-a-cucumber, smiling soldier standing before the wreckage, the story behind the image is equally gripping.

The image (see below in a larger size) was posted on Reddit by Redditor Keggerss, who claims he's the marine in the photo. You can read what Keggerss says allegedly happened here.

UPDATE: We have been contacted by another person who says he is a member of the military who was at the scene of the incident. This person, whose name we are withholding, says the photo actually took place in Afghanistan in late March 2012. He verified that the photo is real but claimed that Keggerss' account is inaccurate.

Here is how our contact describes what happened (we have edited the account for clarity and spelling):

"This incident happened march 26th or 27th 2012 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. No one suffered any injuries from the hard landing.

The osprey did not crash, per se, it just landed hard, as you can see it landed on uneven terrain which caused it to slide and cause the damage. The helicopter was repaired and flown away approximately 5 days later.

The hatch wasn't stuck closed in the back as every marine exited through it. It was a night landing and my platoon did hold security for the repairs to take place before it was flown back and completely repaired. Mortars and 1 rpg were received approximately mid morning the first morning after the crash.

It was more of a comical incident to everyone involved rather then a panic situation as it seemed as one of those 'you have to be kidding me' situations."

(Via Business Insider and Reddit)