What you are about to watch is not a military drill. Rather, it is the Russian skydiving group, Pearls of the Sky, setting a new world record for all female teams with a 101-person flower formation.
The team dedicated the jump to their former captain, Irina Sinitsina, who died during a stunt in California last year. Sinitsina, a leading Russian skydiver, had successfully completed the stunt and was preparing to deploy her parachute when she collieded with another skydiver, becoming entangled in their main parachute. After disentangling herself, Sinitsina deployed her emergency chute just 400 feet from the ground. She struck her head on impact, placing her in a coma. She was flown back to Moscow, where she passed away.
For their record-breaking jump, the Pearls honored Sinitsina with an empty space in the center of their formation.
Here’s another report, with a little extra footage of the jump and the joyful scene on the ground after: