Aikins jumped off the plane at 25,000 feet altitude without any parachute. On top of all that, the entire jump was shown live.
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Luke Aikins, the skydiver in question, is now the first known jumper to make a skydive without the safety of a parachute on his back.
Aikins, a professional skydiver with 18,000 jumps under his belt, reached speeds of 120 miles per hour after leaping from the plane in the stunt broadcast live on television.
He nearly had to cancel his epic jump because he was ordered to wear a parachute for safety and this would have made his landing more risky because of the extra weight.
To accomplish this feat, Aikins had to direct his body in free fall using only the air currents around him to land safely on the high-tech 10,000-square-foot net laid out to catch him.
As the crowd erupted into cheers, Aikins quickly climbed out the net and hugged his wife and their 4-year-old son.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous”, he told an interviewer just before boarding the plane for the jump. Many lights were directing Aikins to the planned landing spot.
A stuntman has fallen 25,000ft from a plane to the ground without wearing a parachute, landing in a net at 120mph. Then, the three accompanying skydivers opened their chutes and seemed to rise up away from Aikins, as he fell alone. He has done 18,000 parachute jumps and various other stunts.
“But to me, this jump is simply the next logical step in a lifetime of extreme challenges”.
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Further to his credit, Aiken is a safety and training advisor for the United States Parachute Association (USPA) where he provides advanced skydiving training to elite military Special Forces.
