During her visit to the “Defensie Para School” a test of courage awaited Queen Máxima of the Netherlands: a tandem jump.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands (51) attended the “Defensie Para School”, the army’s parachute school, in Breda. With a tandem master she jumped from an airplane herself. The moment is captured in a video on the royal family’s official Instagram channel.

Despite the laughter and the thumbs up, the queen was tense. “Of course I got more and more nervous the closer the moment came,” she is quoted as saying by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. She would have said “Keep breathing!” said and then jumped. The monarch described the experience as “very exciting” and added: “But of course I’m doing this to make the men and women in the defense happy and to know what they are going through.”

Queen Máxima receives skydiving course

Before the dare, Queen Máxima was given a tour of the school. In the training hall, she was shown how to free fall and how to fold the parachute. She was also allowed to watch the soldiers practice landing from the diving board.

The “Defensie Para School” has been offering parachute training for soldiers since 2008. This also includes the one for the tandem master. The tandem is used to take specialists such as doctors or interpreters with you on an assignment.