Banzai skydiving is a rumored
form of
skydiving
Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachut ...
in which the skydiver throws their
parachute out the airplane door, waits, and then jumps after it. To be successful, the skydiver must catch the parachute, secure it, and glide to the projected
landing zone
In military terminology a landing zone (LZ) is an area where aircraft can land.
In the United States military, a landing zone is the actual point where aircraft, especially helicopters, land (equivalent to the commonwealth landing point.)
In ...
. There is no known, credible evidence that a banzai skydive has ever really occurred
according to its definition.
There have however been multiple recorded instances of skydivers jumping without being attached to a parachute.
However these jumps lack the element that make them a banzai skydive, where a parachute is thrown out of the plane then caught by the jumper after some delay. During skydives where the jumper is detached from the skydiving rig the rig is held by the skydiver or an assistant until the skydiver is secured to the rig. This is due to the skydiving rig having a much slower terminal velocity than a skydiver is capable of achieving. This has led the skydiving community to doubt the idea that banzai skydiving has ever occurred as defined.
Skydivers jumping while detached from a rig wear a special
harness that attaches to a cord extending from the parachute. The cord can be clearly seen in
Andreas Dachtler's jump video taken in
Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...
.
This ensures the skydiver can safely recover the parachute. Otherwise, the legstraps on a normal harness would require a thread through. This would be impossible while in
free fall
In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on ...
.
The banzai skydive is the most dangerous category in the ''
Guinness Book of World Records'', according to Editor
Craig Glenday
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
.
Yasuhiro Kubo took the challenge on September 2, 2000. Kubo supposedly fell alongside the rig for 50 seconds after jumping before regaining and deploying his parachute. Details about the jump are sparse and it is unknown whether Kubo or another skydiver held onto the rig while falling.
This won him a place in the
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
. This claim however was not witnessed by a Guinness Book of World Records official,
but was witnessed by an unknown expert. No video or photographic evidence exists to support the claim.
References
{{reflist
Parachuting
Articles containing video clips