Daredevils jump from world’s tallest tower

Daredevils jump from world’s tallest tower

Mangalore Today

Dubai, January 9,

Two sky divers leaped off the world’s tallest building on Friday, setting a new record for the highest ever base jump from a man made structure.

The two base jumping enthusiasts, Nasser Al Neyadi, and Omar Alhegelan, descended 672 metres (2020 feet) from a platform near the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The distance was covered with 10 seconds of freefall followed by a 30-40 second parachute flight.Both jumpers landed safely.

Nasser is the 2007 Accuracy Sky Diving UAE national champion and Omar has previously jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur as well as holding multiple world and US skydiving titles.

The pair previously set another world record when they jumped from 29,500ft on Mount Everest.

Dubai opened the world’s tallest skyscraper on Monday, and in a surprise move renamed the gleaming glass-and-metal tower Burj Khalifa in a nod to the leader of neighbouring Abu Dhabi - the oil-rich sheikdom which came to its rescue during the financial meltdown.

The developer of the newly opened tower said it cost about 1.5 (b) billion US dollars to build the
tapering metal-and-glass spire billed as a "vertical city" of luxury apartments and offices.

It boasts four swimming pools, a private library and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

The Burj’s developers say they are confident in the safety of the tower, which is more than twice the height of New York’s Empire State Building’s roof.

The tower is 1,000 feet (305 meters) higher than the skyscraper known as Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which at 1,667 feet (508 meters) had been the world’s tallest since 2004.