American Luke Aikins has become the first person to jump from 25,000 ft without a parachute, landing safely in a net.
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As the crowd erupted into cheers, Aikins quickly climbed out the net and hugged his wife and their 4-year-old son.
The outlet says SAG-AFTRA, a TV labor union, warned Fox officials that the stunt would be too risky to show if Aikins didn’t wear a parachute.
“I’m nearly levitating. It’s incredible”, the jubilant skydiver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held their son, who dozed in her arms.
Talley, who’d worked with Aikins on other projects and was helping Amusement Park Entertainment pitch a show to Fox, said Aikins is the only skydiver he’s confident can actually pull this off.
The jump was aired live on television via the Fox network during an hour-long special.
He jumped out of a plane WITH NO PARACHUTE and fell 25,000 feet into a net the size of about one-third of a football field. Yes, you read that right, without a parachute.
Lights were set along the side of the net to serve as a guide for Aikins to aim himself as he hurtled toward it.
There was a lot of method behind Aikins’ madness: he has made more than 18,000 skydiving jumps. “Then, two weeks went by and I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘If somebody said you had to do this, how could it be done?'”
The veteran daredevil was armed with nothing more than a helmet and a body camera during his descent but he did wear a “mystery device” on his back that he used to land into the net. The production company was informed by the SAG-AFTRA that the stunt was too risky to be performed, and that Aikins will not be allowed to jump without a parachute. One by one, the other divers deployed their own chutes, leaving Aikins to finish his ultimately successful stunt alone. He’s been racking them up at several hundred a year ever since.
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Aikins is also a safety and training advisor for the United States Parachute Association.
