Two French daredevils have broken the Guinness World Record for the highest base jump after leaping off from the top of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest man-made structure.
Professional base jumpers Vince Reffet and Fred Fugen broke the record on Monday after performing two base jumps from the top of the 828-metre Burj Khalifa here, the Gulf News reported.
Emirati jumpers Nasser Al Neyadi and Omar Al Hegelan held the previous world record after jumping 672 metres down the tower in 2010.
Base jumping is an acronym for an extreme sport of jumping from a building, antennae, span or bridges, and Earth (referring to cliffs or mountains). It is a variation of skydiving, but is considered more dangerous because it is done at a lower altitude and jumpers have obstacles along the way.
A video of the jump was released today, which showed Reffet and Fugen doing two wing-suit jumps from a three-metre by one-metre platform on top of the tower with the sunrise as their backdrop.
The duo sported yellow jumpsuits with inflatable pressurised nylon cells that act as wings to help jumpers glide in the air like birds.
“We feel happy for breaking the world record, but it wasn’t the main goal. We’ve been dreaming about base jumping from this special place, this unique place for three years now,” Fugen, 34, who has done 600 base jumps since 2003, told the daily.
The duo said it took them a year to prepare for the record jump. The jump was done early in the morning to minimise dangers from strong wind speeds at the tower.
“We didn’t leave any room for error. We planned everything. For sure we were scared at first but we transformed that fear into power to achieve our goal,” Reffet, who has done between 600 and 700 base jumps, said.