Tourists 'base-jump' central Auckland buildings

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Auckland has been "base-jumped" by two overseas tourists who secretly plunged off a central city building and parachuted into the street below.

The dare-devil tourists were seen falling from the central city building and parachuting into Albert St on Sunday night.

Further clandestine jumps may be planned from up to five more high-rise buildings.

The dangerous stunt is described as "adrenaline plus."

It follows a report of an incident last week when authorities stopped a group planning to jump off the 90m radio masts at Henderson beside the Northwestern Motorway.

Base-jumping grew out of sky-diving about 15 years ago. Thrill-seekers throw themselves from fixed objects such as buildings, often talking or sneaking their way in.

Auckland police say base-jumping from buildings is illegal. Anyone caught could be charged with trespass and endangering themselves or the safety of others.

United States reports say 21 people have died base-jumping.

The foreign pair, two of several hundred base-jumpers worldwide, landed in front of pedestrians and traffic outside the Auckland District Court around 9.45 pm on Sunday. Watched by about a dozen people, they gathered up their parachutes and ran quickly to a silver sportscar parked nearby.

"They were sprinting up the road pretty fast and they kept looking around, so I thought they were up to no good," one passerby said.

One of New Zealand's most experienced skydivers, Dave Cogan, knows the tourists who jumped, but said they did not want the building or themselves identified.

The word "base" stood for "building, antenna, span and Earth."

Mr Cogan said jumpers often sought to complete a jump off each.

A pair of binoculars which measure distance with a laser was used recently to measure possible jump-sites around Auckland.

Base-jumps could be done from a minimum of 90m and the binoculars, sold in sports shops overseas, spied about six suitable buildings in the city which were between 100m and 150m tall.

Mr Cogan said the equipment used was more reliable than that used in skydiving, but the sport was extremely dangerous.

"You're jumping at a height where you don't have time to use a reserve, and you're also jumping next to a fixed object so that if your canopy opens facing the wrong way you end up slamming into the building."

Most base-jumps were done overseas, with tall buildings such as the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower having been used as launching pads.

New Zealand had around 10 base-jumpers, including Mr Cogan, but it did not have many suitable sites.

Several people base-jumped off the Auckland Harbour Bridge on New Year's Day last year in an approved display but impressive sites such as Angel Falls in Venezuela, which features in an Energizer batteries commercial, were hard to match in this country, Mr Cogan said.

He said large parachutes were used to slow the descent and improve manoeuvrability, and factors such as wind and the amount of traffic below were taken into account before a jump.

"The people who are generally doing these things are very responsible. If they're not, they're going to die in this sport."

Mr Cogan said five of the 50 base-jumpers he knows had died, but accidents generally occurred when conditions were not right and the jump should not have been made.

"It's an absolute blast," he said. "You prepare for these things, you execute it properly and you pull it off safely. It's adrenaline plus."