The lights being used to guide Aikins were strong enough to be visible at 25,000 feet, and would change color if he was off course, allowing him to attempt to make adjustments, according to the Post.
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Aikins, a self-described “member of the Red Bull Air Force, professional skydiver, BASE jumper, stuntman, pilot”.
‘It still gives me goosebumps, ‘ said Luke Aikins while watching the video of his feat on Today. It was all these guys, everybody who made this thing happen.
There was a lot of method behind Aikins’ madness: he has made more than 18,000 skydiving jumps. The words I want to say I can’t even get out of my mouth. “I’ll just have to deal with the consequences when I land of wearing the parachute on my back and what it’s going to do to my body”. As the plane was climbing to 25,000 feet above the drop zone he said the requirement had been lifted and he took off the chute.
All the three skydivers installed their parachutes but Luke didn’t.
Good news for his mom, who said she couldn’t watch the stunt.
“Whenever people attempt to push the limits of what’s considered humanly possible, they’re invariably described as insane”, said Aikins before the jump. It’s an event which Aikins had been reportedly preparing for two years. The Globe and Mail reports he was a backup jumper for Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian daredevil who broke the speed of sound after jumping 24 miles in 2012. He is a third-generation skydiver and his family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Wash.
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Aikins is also a safety and training adviser for the United States Parachute Association and is certified to teach both students and skydiving instructors.
