A 42-year-old skydiver has plummeted back to earth, becoming the first person to jump from a plane with no parachute, landing in a net instead.
Luke Aikins jumped from 25,000 feet above the desert landscape of California's Simi Valley, landing in a 39-by-39-metre two-tiered net which was set up to catch him last Sunday (NZ time).
The record breaking skydive brought him to a staggering free-fall speed of 193km/h.
Moments before he reached the safety net he completed a last-second roll onto his back to land in the right position.
When cheers erupted, Mr Aikins climbed out and hugged his wife Monica, who had been watching from the ground with their four-year-old son Logan and other family members.
People around the world were holding their breath as they watched the two-minute free fall broadcast live on television.
Mr Aikins, who has skydived since he was 16 and has made 18,000 parachute jumps in his career, said he originally rejected the project when he was first approached about it. "I turned it down actually. I thought it was a bad idea and I didn't want anything to do with that," he said. As time went on he could not stop thinking about the idea and began to figure out how to make it possible.
He prepared for the event by completing dozens of jumps wearing a parachute, aiming at a 100 square foot target and opening the chute at the last possible minute. The hardest parts of the jumps were staying on target as the wind changed all the time at different altitudes, he said.
For the first 3000m of the fall Aikins had to wear an oxygen mask which he then passed off to one of his three support divers. He also had what he described as "a variation on an airport light system", with lights set up around the net that shone white if he was on target.
The landing was off centre in the net and although he said he would not mind taking another stab at his feat, he could not imagine doing it better. “I don’t think you try to top something like this. I think you just call this a good one and move on to the next thing,” he said.