Dude BASE Jumps Off One World Trade Center

Gothamist – Hours after it was reported that a trio of men dove off 1 World Trade Center in a 1,368-foot BASE jump last September, the men, plus a friend who served as lookout, turned themselves into the police yesterday. Apparently the NYPD Intelligence Division and the Port Authority Police Department had been investigating the incident for the past five and a half months—guess the GoPro video that one of the jumpers took is pretty incriminating. The police say, “This investigation involved an extensive review of video footage from the area around the World Trade Center site, as well as other electronic and photographic evidence. Additional evidence was seized as a result of search warrants issued with the assistance of the New York County District Attorney’s Office.” Of course, the video shows two men jumping from the building. The camera is attached to the second jumper, and you see him landing on the West Side Highway, just south of Chambers Street, and scurrying to hide. Apparently a Goldman Sachs security guard saw some of the jumpers and reported it. The NY Times reports, “In January, detectives identified some of the men and obtained warrants to search their homes. The searches turned up videotapes the men had filmed of the stunt with cameras in their helmets.”

Now I fully admit when the chips are down and I’m standing on top of a building 1,500 feet in the air, I’d shit my pants just standing on the edge looking over the side, let alone jumping off. But am I the only one who thought this video made it look super easy to BASE jump? Maybe it was because it was at night or something but this looked like a walk in the park. Cruise a little bit, pull the cord, glide on to the street. Bingo bango I’m done. Although at the end when he got close to the street and everything came into focus you could tell he was fucking flying. But I’m just saying usually when I watch those Russian free climbing vertigo movies I almost puke. I have to shut those videos off. This video here has me thinking I’m gonna go be a Manhattan BASE jumper.