Don’t try this at home.
Two daredevils in wingsuits accomplished an unbelievable feat by leaping from an Alpine peak and slamming through the open doorway of a passing plane — and didn’t lose their lives in the process.
French thrill-seekers Fred Fugen, 38, and Vince Reffet, 33, who call themselves the Soul Flyers, jumped from the top of 13,000-foot Jungfrau in Switzerland and managed to zoom into the 5-foot-wide door of an ultralight Pilatus Porter prop plane. The plane was traveling 85 mph at about 2 miles altitude.
The flyers trained for months for the “Door in the Sky” mission with 100 test runs — 20 of them successful — in Empuriabrava, Spain.
Their stunt was captured in a video released Tuesday on YouTube by sponsor Red Bull. The video also showed a couple of spectacular fails. During training, Reffet said he injured his ribs after he managed to rocket into the open doorway only to tumble out again and land with his emergency parachute.
The pair aimed to pay homage to a 20-year-old stunt by compatriot Patrick de Gayardon, who leaped from a plane, then managed to slip back inside, the flyers noted on Facebook. This time the stunt began with a BASE jump.
After the flyers managed to hit the open door with the help of an attentive pilot, Philippe Bouvier, and co-pilot, the men erupted in cheers.
The flyers said they thought the stunt would be easier than it turned out to be.
“Then we realized that it was quite a technical and mental challenge. We had to be focused. … It takes all your energy,” Reffet said in a Red Bull interview.
“It’s cool but also quite weird,” Reffet explained. “We’re used to jumping from the plane, but here you have to enter into it. You’re falling down and all of a sudden there’s no air anymore. The feeling is quite strange. It was very emotional for us because we worked hard to make it happen.”
Check out the video above.