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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3246287.stm

Illusionist David Blaine has announced his next stunt - jumping hundreds of feet from a helicopter into a river.
The US magician is already planning his next adventure, which will take place on his birthday - 4 April, 2004.

The announcement comes just weeks after he ended his enforced 44-day stay in a plastic box in London.

Blaine has not said where the helicopter plunge will take place, but added only a few had survived the jump - dubbed the "dive of death".

Speaking on CNN, he said: "If you go in (to the water) a little bit off if your body is not perfectly straight - you do not pierce the water right, you rip your ligaments off, you're paralysed, anything can go wrong," he said.

He also gave assurances that he would be doing the jump with no parachute and "no dummy either - it will actually be me".

I watched this programe called Extremists on Channel 4 in the UK and it showed high cliff divers doing jumps from 30 meters. One chap landed in the water and the energy wave bounced off the bottom and broke his pelvis.

I have also heard that 50 meters is the maximum anyone can survive a jump without speeding up too much to enter the water safely. On oil rigs, if they need to be evacuated, you cannot jump off the edge as it is too high.

Sounds to me like Blaine will either be dead or walking like John Wayne.

Meeker

Just seen this also on http://www.truthsearcher.com/AbnFacts.htm?o=0:

What is the Highest Jump WITHOUT a Parachute?

1. "Lieutenant I. M. Chisov of the former Soviet Union was flying his Ilyushin 4 on a bitter cold day in January 1942, when it was attacked by 12 German Messerschmitts. Convinced that he had no chance of surviving if he staged with his badly battered plane, Chisov bailed out at 21,980 feet. With the fighters still buzzing around, Chisov cleverly decided to fall freely out of the arena. It was his plan not to open his chute until he was down to only 1000 ft above the ground. Unfortunately, he lost consciousness en route. As luck would have it, he crashed at the edge of a steep ravine covered with 3 ft of snow. Hitting at about 120 mi/h, he plowed along its slope until he came to rest at the bottom. Chisov awoke 20 min later, bruised and sore, but miraclously he had suffered only a concussion of the spine and a fractured pelvis. Three and one-half months later he was back at work as a flight instructor." Hecht, Eugene. Physics: Calculus. 2nd ed. United States: Brooks/Cole, 2000. p 85

2. Flight Sergeant Nicholas Steven Alkemade was on a bombing mission over Germany on 23 March 1944 when his Lancaster bomber flying at 18,000 feet was blazed apart and in flames when he was forced to jump, without a parachute or be burn to death. He dove out of his destroyed aircraft hoping on a quick death. His speed accelerated to over 120 miles per hour and he impacted on a snow covered sloping forest. He was completely uninjured and later captured by the Germans who refused to believe his story. (www.urbanlegends.com/death)

3. The longest survivable fall, 26 January 1972, was Vesna Vulovic a stewardess in a DC-9 which blew up at 33,330 feet. She was in the tail section of the aircraft and though injured survived the fall.

I'm not sure I believe that's possible.

As far as height, I've jumped (not parachuted) feet first off of a 75 ft bridge, AND I didn't even have most ideal body position when I hit the water... I was vertical, but my feet were flat and my arms were out to my sides a bit (hands about 6 inches from thighs). It hurt quite a bit for a few minutes, but I still did it again. :) I'm sure there are skilled divers who can do much higher, but "several hundred feet" sounds like too much to me.

I believe that the little cliff at the boat dock by the legal span has been jumped without a parachute. I lasered it at 150'.

I've also jumped a 70 to 80 foot high cliff at Lake Powell. Twice. It was too much fun to do once.

The first time I jumped I thought that maybe it might be too high when I started hearing the wind really pick up speed. Half way down I'm thinking, "Uh oh." My previous highest jump was only 35 feet or so.

Later in the day I saw someone dive off the same cliff. Woo!

Lou

Yeh, I did a 35 foot bridge about 10 times before the 75 footer. I wouldn't imagine diving off of either of them though. That's just cause I don't know how. Guess if I had to learn I'd want to start more like 15-20 foot.

If you would have used a parachute, the NPS would have arrested you! It's only legal to jump off those cliffs WITHOUT a parachute. What a joke.

The error margin for the stunt is significantly reduced by relying on the turbulent water surface to vastly reduce the destructive power of surface tension. Hot dog skiers frequently practive over pools of water with huge bubble generators to make the impact much, much softer.

That was my first thought, a tank under the water relasing a large amount of air to cushion the impact.

Derek

Yeh, I've thought about that for a long time too but didn't know if anybody did it. I always thought about the possibility of jumping into some turbulent water near a waterfall, but the safety gained by the turbulence is outweighed by the other dangers the waterfall environment probably would create.

What is a hot dog skier? Are you saying the water skiers that do the huge jumps land in bubbly water?

Platform divers have used this technique for years. There are even commerical bubblers that are designed to sit at the bottom of diving wells, for practice. We used one at DW's aerial seminar, so I guess BASE jumpers are using this technique for training, too.

At a bridge I took a tour of, the guides tell a story about its construction. One of the steel erectors back in the 1920's fell from near the top, 130 metres above sea level and survived. The story goes that as he fell, rivets tumbled from a bag he was carrying and broke the surface tension of the water.

While he did survive he suffered fractures in both legs.

edit: Please read the "Before you Post" link in the upper right hand corner. ~Tom Aiello

Sorry Tom, I didn't make the connection between my post, the forum rules and this place being potentially active.

This is old news but its along the same lines. The waterfall created a natural bubbling effect that allowed him to survive a 180ft fall

http://www.sfgate.com/...ional1409EDT0625.DTL

I think as he is an illusionist he will have a backup plan. Think about it this way... if he hits the water wrong and is twisted up with limbs everywhere, that will be on live TV. You can guarantee the complaints of seeing a live death / mutilation will flow thick and fast.

Interestingly enough, they did a segment on the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters about that legend.

They took a crash test dummy and hooked it up to an accelerometer. Then they hauled it up a crane and dropped it into water from 100-ish feet.

The dummy was getting ripped apart and the accelerometer was reading close to 90 Gs. Then they dropped a hammer in front of it to test the surface tension theory. It maybe lopped off 5 Gs.

So it looks that that story is an urban legend.

I thought those bubbles were just for a visual reference of where the surface is.

Doesn't creating bubbles affect the density of the water ? is that what we're talking about here ?

The *water* still has the same density, but you are no longer jumping into water... you are jumping into a mixture of air and water. That mixture is less dense, and has less surface tension, than water.

Was it really for real... I do not think so. I can do this trick too... And if you wand to levitate for real, click here for instructions, scroll down the page and click next to the levitating guy for an explenation...

http://203.120.90.137/.../magic/magic-new.htm

I have a tube that creates bubbles. Does that count?

While you all are trying to figure out who has done what and when and where - I think we've over looked something. David Blaine is an illusionist - not a Base Jumper / Skydiver. Do you honestly think he is jumping without some "trick" or illusion?

:)

(*No, I don't Base , but I read all the different sub-forums. :D *)

Bingo, my sentiments exactly.

I bet you he has some Inspector Gadget powers such as go go gadet extendible feet or go go gadget helicopter in a hat.

Or maybe this is not a stunt and he is simply going to cane as much tequilla as he can and hope it doesn't hurt too much.

:-)

The following is not such a big deal because I did use a BASE rig. Probably plenty have done similar stunts before;but, at an airshow (unnamed) last spring, I jumped my BASE rig from 900 feet off the lower wing of a Steerman. It gave the crowd a thrill anyway.To them, it was a stunt, and interesting, because they could see me on the wing from launch to landing.

You are lucky somebody did not report you to the FAA..........but I like it. Good one.

Hi Jim

Just sent you a personal message...

You know, most of these stunts can be done quite safely, many of the original jumps from airplanes were pull-offs, and guys like Cliff Winters were doing them from below 100' regularly at air shows...

Done by professionals, there's no reason that jumps like these can't be performed safely, and sometimes they still are 'as movie stunts, etc.'... If they can be done safely for a movie, they can be done safely as an exhibition... It's only because USPA and FAA (and CSPA in Canada) decided to set up some arbitrary rules that it became 'not kosher' to do these.

I used a FOX 265 in a Fox velcro closed container, no reserve (obviously).
I didn't take much of a delay.
After sliding off the wing, to duck the plane's tail assembly, I just made sure I was stable and pulled. The pilot did not want to try a roll over or it would have been easier.
I used a mesh slider, up, and a 42" pc.
I'm sure that some of the experienced BASE jumpers could dream up some good tricks doing that sort of jump.
Dwain probably would have done a few tucks and a half gainer. JJ has undoubtedly already done stuff like this with unique add ons.

Jim

I did it once from a Cessna at 500' with Maverick in my pullout equipped Innovator rig (slider-up, in a bag) After about a 2sec delay I missed my handle the first time I reached!!! The ground was getting big by the time it opened...

This was at a party. We were supposed to be getting out at 900' but we forgot the party was about 400 higher than the dz... Noticed we looked pretty low, but figured at 900' it would look low anyway....

After we went up to the owner and said, 'At a dollar per thousand feet - ok here's your 50 cents...'

I jumped an RV-4 from 500 feet.

Derek