"I'm out here getting ready to do something that's never been done before. We're going to jump from 25,000 feet, we're going to do it without a parachute, and we're going to land in this awesomely designed net behind me," Luke Aikins said prior to the jump.
Jumping out of a plane 25,000 feet in the air without a parachute is one of those things you simply shouldn't try at home.
But Aikins, a skydiver, made history Saturday night by becoming the first person to do just that, successfully landing in a giant net far below.
Aikins set the record for highest successful jump without a parachute, landing in a net that was about a third the size of a football field. He positioned himself using only air currents before landing on his back in the net.
The jump took place in Simi Valley, California, as a part of Stride Gum's Heaven Sent event. It was televised with a five-second delay on Fox.
The jump went about as perfect as it could've gone, but as Deadline reports, it almost didn't happen.
The outlet says SAG-AFTRA, a TV labor union, warned Fox officials that the stunt would be too dangerous to show if Aikins didn't wear a parachute.
The outlet wrote: "Everyone involved with the stunt was pissed. To them it’s like a union telling a trapeze artist or a high wire act they can’t perform without a net — only in this case, Aikens was working with a net."
Aikins, who has been skydiving since he was 16 years old, was eventually allowed to attempt the stunt without wearing a parachute.
This video includes a clip from Amusement Park and images from Getty Images. Music provided courtesy of APM Music.
