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Skydiver to jump out of plane with no wingsuit, no parachute for television special

This will make for some terrifying television.

Luke Aikins, an elite skydiver and stuntman, will jump out of an airplane at 25,000 feet for a television special on Fox — without a parachute. According to the Associated Press, he’ll land in a giant net that is the size of about one-third of a football field. The landing net is supposed to be engineered to stop him from bouncing out of it despite the impact.

“No parachute, no wingsuit, no tricks, just the clothes on his back,” said Jimmy Smith, a veteran public relations expert credited with selling the special, in a video previewing the event. “And he’s going to land safely.”

More terrifying details from the AP:

The landing target, which has been described as similar to a fishing trawler net, has been tested repeatedly using dummies.

One of those 200-pound dummies didn’t bounce out. It crashed right through.

“That was not a good thing to see,” recalled [Smith].

Chris Talley, who had worked with Aikins on other projects and helped train him for this one, proposed the parachute-free idea to Smith, creative director for Amusement Park Entertainment, telling him Aikins was arguably the only guy who was not only good enough but also smart enough and careful enough to survive such a feat.

The jump will be shown on a 60-minute show on Saturday.

“The whole time in freefall, I’m going to be directing my body to line up straight over the target,” Aikins said in the preview video. “The team of guys that have been assembled to make this project happen are the best of the best that we can get. If I didn’t feel confident in this team I wouldn’t be part of it.”

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