Prince Charles: Video shows 'upside down' parachute jump

The Prince of Wales has recalled his first parachute drop almost 50 years ago did not go entirely the plan.

Prince Charles told the Parachute Regiment he was "initially upside down with my legs in the rigging lines" when he completed his first parachute drop at Studland Bay in Dorset in 1972.

He was speaking as he presented new Colours - military ceremonial flags - to the regiment at a ceremony at Merville Barracks in Colchester, Essex.

A video of his first jump and subsequent training at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire features in the BBC archives.

Upon his appointment as colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment in 1977, the prince requested to join a parachute training course at RAF Brize Norton in 1978.

Addressing soldiers, veterans and families on Tuesday, he said: "I find it hard to believe that it's been 44 years since I became your colonel-in-chief and nearly 50 years since I made my first parachute drop, initially upside down with my legs in the rigging lines, into Studland Bay, Dorset, where I was pulled out of the water by the Royal Marines."