High-flying champion skydiver BJ Worth chased a wild dream that even some of the world’s best jumpers thought impossible, but hundreds of them joined up and finally achieved a record on Wednesday.
Skydivers from 31 nations broke the world free-fall formation record with a milestone 400-person spiral in the skies over Thailand, leaping from 7 200m out of five massive aircraft.
”What happened today was incredible; we made history with three world-record jumps of 376, 399 and 400 people,” Worth told jubilant team members and supporters.
As the beer flowed at the Royal Thai Air Force base in Udon Thani and loudspeakers blared out the song We Are the Champions, top international judges ruled that the 400 jumpers had managed to hold a complete 400-person formation for 4,5 seconds.
The international skydiving world team 2006 had previously dedicated their attempt at the unprecedented feat to Thailand’s King Bhumipol Adulyadej, who is completing his 60th year on the throne as the world’s longest-reigning monarch.
”Never before has anyone attempted such a thing, with five huge C-130 Hercules aeroplanes,” said Dieter Kirsch, the captain of the German contingent that fielded 30 jumpers.
”It was really one man with one vision — BJ — and not many people believed him, but now we have done it, all together,” Kirsch said.
The team achieved the record formation on the third try of the day, the ninth attempt since starting out Saturday. They had also set several previous records in Thailand, including the standing record formation of 357 jumpers set in 2004.
Emotions ran high after the day’s second attempt, when many of the skydivers and spectators believed that they had made the complete formation.
But detailed scrutiny of mid-air videos and photographs revealed that a lone jumper had barely failed to link up with the others before the formation broke. International judging rules require all free-fall formation jumpers to hook up in pre-ordained positions.
The rules also dictate that the declared formation must be met, and thus the linking of 399 jumpers — and the morning’s first attempt that joined 376 — did not qualify as valid records.
But the optimism was palpable over the ensuing three hours until the final attempt at the airfield in north-eastern Thailand, once a key rear-guard staging base for United States forces fighting in nearby Vietnam.
The team, including Thai pilots, various support crews and 15 additional jumpers with helmet-mounted cameras, used five aeroplanes from the Royal Thai Air Force.
The jumpers exited the aircraft at an altitude of 7 200m, which allowed 83 seconds to complete the formation, at a terminal velocity of nearly 200kph.
”Just try doing that even on the ground sometime,” Worth said.
Another jumper noted that the initial trial formation on the ground, even before the first jumps, took the team more than five minutes to get into place. ”But when you’re falling in the air, you’ve gotta move much more quickly, or maybe you die,” he said, with a winning grin.
The world team’s relationship with Thailand is long and close, with several skydiving records having been set in the kingdom. ”This is the only place where we can use all of those big aeroplanes,” German captain Kirsch said.
The team’s spokesperson, Kevin Gibson, said the enthusiastic support of the Thai government and air force was vital to achieving the record, which many predict will stand for several years to come.
”The Thais have taken this on as their own, and in fact they believe it is Thailand’s record — which the internationals have come here to help them set,” said Gibson. ”That idea is not far from the way the team feels: there is a very loving relationship with the Thai people.”
Meanwhile, large swarms of Thai schoolchildren mobbed the happy but weary foreigners, forcing them to sign hundreds of autographs on their official programmes. — Sapa-dpa