LONDON: A British stuntman became the world’s first skydiver to land without a parachute yesterday, falling 2,400 feet to drop safely onto a crash-pad of cardboard boxes.
Wearing a specially-made “wing suit,” Gary Connery leapt from a helicopter over Henley-on-Thames in southern England, aiming — with his life hanging in the balance — at a “runway” of 18,000 cardboard boxes. After plunging at a speed of approximately 130 km an hour the 41-year-old landed successfully onto the boxes, but the anxious crowd had to wait several minutes before he emerged from the pile.
Connery said the experience had been “absolutely amazing.”
“I’m in a strange space, if I’m totally honest,” he told Sky News. “I guess I haven’t digested what’s just happened.” “(The landing) was so comfortable, so soft — my calculations obviously worked out.” Connery’s wife Vivienne said simply: “I’m relieved it’s all over.”
Skydiver lands safely without parachute
