An ambitious aerial stunt sponsored by Red Bull above the Arizona desert in which two cousins attempted to swap planes mid air, did not quite go to plan on Monday.
The stunt saw Americans Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington - long-time pilots, skydivers and members of the Red Bull Air Force aviation crew - "plane swap", a unique and potentially extremely dangerous undertaking whereby they flew their planes close together, put them into a nosedive and then tried to skydive into each other's aircraft before making a safe landing.
Aikins said in a statement beforehand that he was inspired to do the stunt 22 years ago after seeing a photo in an aviation magazine.
"It’s the pinnacle of my career, and my goal is to inspire the world and show that anything is possible," he said. "You can set your mind on something that at times seems wild, crazy and unattainable, but through ambition and creativity, you can make it happen."
The plan was for the pair to pitch their planes into a synchronised nosedive, stop the engines and use a custom airbrake that would hold the planes in a controlled descent as they exited their own aircraft.
Aikins and Farrington would free-fly skydive toward each other’s planes, catch up to the aircrafts, enter the cockpits, disengage the airbrake systems, restart the engines and take control of the planes.
But the livestream of the stunt, filmed by 12 cameras, showed Aikins' blue Cessna 182 single-seat aircraft going into a spin almost as soon as he left it.
However, Farringdon's grey Cessna flew as expected - straight down - meaning Aikins was able to enter and safely land it. Farrington parachuted to the ground, with Aikins' original plane also deploying a parachute.
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