New world record by skydivers
Source: Agencies |
August 5, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FALLING at speeds of up to 355 kph, nearly 140 skydivers shattered the vertical skydiving world record as they flew heads-down in a snowflake formation in northern Illinois in the United States.
Three judges representing the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the international air sports agency, certified that 138 skydivers created the formation Friday evening over Ottawa, about 130 kilometers southwest of Chicago. It took 15 attempts over three days for the team to break the previous record of 108 skydivers, which was set in 2009.
"I feel amazing," Rook Nelson, an organizer and owner of Skydive Chicago where the record was broken, said shortly after he made the jump. "There was a lot of emotion and days where we should have got it. But we dug down deep and stuck at it."
Following months of planning, tryouts and camps to decide who could take part in the dangerous challenge, the record breakers squeezed into six aircraft and launched themselves into the air at 5,640 meters. Skydivers and pilots used oxygen tanks aboard the planes.
Four camera operators shooting video and stills jumped with the 138 participants to record their achievement for the FAI judges.
Those images are key, said co-organizer Mike Swanson, a professional skydiver who base jumped from Willis Tower and its fellow Chicago skyscraper Trump Tower for the movie "Transformers 3."
If no one records the 46-meter-wide formation showing all the jumpers in their pre-assigned slots, "then it wasn't really done," Swanson said.
The challenge began Wednesday, midway through a 10-day skydiving festival. After each attempt, organizers reviewed the videos and decided who should stay and who should be swapped out for one of the dozens of other hopefuls.
Three judges representing the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the international air sports agency, certified that 138 skydivers created the formation Friday evening over Ottawa, about 130 kilometers southwest of Chicago. It took 15 attempts over three days for the team to break the previous record of 108 skydivers, which was set in 2009.
"I feel amazing," Rook Nelson, an organizer and owner of Skydive Chicago where the record was broken, said shortly after he made the jump. "There was a lot of emotion and days where we should have got it. But we dug down deep and stuck at it."
Following months of planning, tryouts and camps to decide who could take part in the dangerous challenge, the record breakers squeezed into six aircraft and launched themselves into the air at 5,640 meters. Skydivers and pilots used oxygen tanks aboard the planes.
Four camera operators shooting video and stills jumped with the 138 participants to record their achievement for the FAI judges.
Those images are key, said co-organizer Mike Swanson, a professional skydiver who base jumped from Willis Tower and its fellow Chicago skyscraper Trump Tower for the movie "Transformers 3."
If no one records the 46-meter-wide formation showing all the jumpers in their pre-assigned slots, "then it wasn't really done," Swanson said.
The challenge began Wednesday, midway through a 10-day skydiving festival. After each attempt, organizers reviewed the videos and decided who should stay and who should be swapped out for one of the dozens of other hopefuls.
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