Daredevil jumps from 25,000 feet out of plane without a parachute into giant net
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Skydiver Luke Aikins achieved something on Saturday afternoon that nobody has before and likely few will ever dare to attempt. The skydiver jumped out of a plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute, wingsuit or any other way to slow his attempt and relied solely on a giant net to stop him plummeting into the ground to his death.
Falling at 150 mph, there was no room for error from Aikins. If he drifted wildly off course at the start of his descent there were support staff who could bail him out, but for the final 5,000 feet he was totally alone. Everyone else pulled their chutes, and it was all on Aikins to spot his target and hit it.
To make matters more gut-wrenching the jumpers with him at the start of his descent included his cousin — which meant that if things went wrong it would have been doubly-horrible. This story had a happy ending though. Aikens avoided the myriad things that could have went wrong and landed almost perfectly.
This is like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
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