Skydiver Luke Aikins says he’ll be wearing a parachute when he tries to become the first person to land in a net without using one.
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Aikins hit the 100-by-100-foot net perfectly, quickly climbed out of it and walked over to hug his wife, who had been watching with other family members.
Aikins says he heard from the Screen Actors Guild that the jump couldn’t go on unless he wore a parachute.
Aikins said wearing it would actually make it harder for him to properly put himself over the 100-foot-by-100-foot net and more unsafe, because he would have its canister on his back when he hit the net at about 120 miles per hour (193km/h).
The other three will then open their chutes at 5,000 feet, leaving Aikins alone with no one to hand him a chute in midair as has been done before.
The Fox broadcast showed Aikins, who was wearing an oxygen mask because of the altitude, jump out of a propeller plane in a bright green outfit along with three parachutists.
Aikins, who has 18,000 jumps under his belt, completed the jump in Simi Valley just west of Los Angeles, landing in a net measuring 100 feet by 100 feet (30 meters by 30 meters) in a feat broadcast on Fox.
“I’m nearly levitating, it’s incredible”, the jubilant skydiver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held Logan, who dozed in her arms. If he had to wear it he said he wouldn’t bother to pull the ripcord anyway. Aikins left the plane without the chute. “I’ll help you find somebody to do it, ‘” he told The Associated Press as he trained for the jump last week.
Aikins, who claims it is a world record for jumping without a parachute, previously worked with Felix Baumgartner on the Austrian daredevil’s 2012 record skydive which started 24 miles above the earth.
His father and grandfather were skydivers and his wife has made 2,000 jumps.
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Mr Aikins is also a safety and training adviser for the United States Parachute Association and is certified to teach both students and skydiving instructors.
