LOS ANGELES — A 42-year-old skydiver with more than 18,000 jumps made history when he became the first person to leap without a parachute and land in a net instead.
After a two-minute freefall, Luke Aikins landed dead center in the 100-by-100-foot net Saturday at the Big Sky movie ranch on the outskirts of Simi Valley.
As cheers erupted, Aikins quickly climbed out, walked over and hugged his wife, Monica, who had been watching from the ground with their 4-year-old son, Logan, and other family members.
“I’m almost levitating, it’s incredible,” the jubilant skydiver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held their son, who dozed in her arms.
“This thing just happened! I can’t even get the words out of my mouth,” he added as he thanked the dozens of crew members who spent two years helping him prepare for the jump, including those who assembled the fishing trawler-like net and made sure it really worked.
The stunt, broadcast live on the Fox network for the TV special “Stride Gum Presents Heaven Sent,” nearly didn’t come off as planned when Aikins revealed just before climbing into his plane that the Screen Actors Guild had ordered him to wear a parachute to ensure his safety.
Aikins didn’t say what prompted the original restriction, and representatives for the show and the Screen Actors Guild did not immediately respond to phone and email messages.
Aikins said he considered pulling out at that point because having the parachute canister on his back would make his landing in the net far more dangerous. If he had to wear it he said he wouldn’t bother to pull the ripcord anyway.
“I’m going all the way to the net, no question about it,” he said from the plane. “I’ll just have to deal with the consequences when I land of wearing the parachute on my back and what it’s going to do to my body.”
A few minutes before the jump one of the show’s hosts said the requirement had been lifted. Aikins left the plane without the chute.
He jumped with three other skydivers, each wearing parachutes. One had a camera, another trailed smoke so people on the ground could follow his descent and the third took an oxygen canister he handed off after they got to an altitude where it was no longer needed.
Then the others opened their parachutes and left him on his own.
Aikins admitted before the jump he was nervous and his mother said she was one family member who wouldn’t watch.
When his friend Chris Talley came up with the idea two years ago, Aikins acknowledged he turned it down cold.
“I kind of laugh and I say, ‘Ok, that’s great. I’ll help you find somebody to do it,’” he told The Associated Press as he trained for the jump last week.
One roundabout near Jerusalem has become a symbol of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The Gush Etzion Junction has been the site of a dozen deadly incidents in recent months.
As we turned on to Route 60, from Hebron towards Jerusalem, we find Israeli police blocking the way. We've just interviewed the father of a Palestinian teenager, shot dead last year after stabbing an Israeli soldier at a road junction.
Now another Palestinian man has been killed while allegedly carrying out an attack at the very same spot, up ahead.
The Gush Etzion Junction is a roundabout where Israelis and Palestinians constantly cross paths. And recently it has become one of the most dangerous places in the West Bank. There have been a dozen deadly incidents since October.
"So, this junction - every stone, every flag, every bus stop - has seen a terror attack," says Daniel Hanson, a British-Israeli security officer for Jewish settlements nearby. "Unfortunately, where we're standing we lost two civilians in two separate attacks."
He shows me mounds of stones topped with Israeli flags where a female student and a reservist soldier were killed.
The Rami Levi supermarket next to the roundabout bustles with Israeli shoppers pushing trolleys. Most live in the Gush Etzion bloc of more than 20 settlements. Many now carry guns - either M16 rifles like Daniel - or small handguns like the one he tells me his wife keeps in her handbag to protect herself.
Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the expansion of settlements are often cited as reasons for Palestinian anger. But Daniel believes incitement is driving the upsurge in attacks.
"On Palestinian television we see videos and cartoons calling to go out and become a shaheed, a martyr, 'Go out, stab a Jew, stab an Israeli'," he says. "They want to glorify their name, glorify Islam."
Image copyrightGetty Images
The current escalation was triggered, at least in part, by Palestinian fears about the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City. The site is holy to Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews, who call it Temple Mount.
As Jews visited during religious holidays, there were reports - officially denied - that Israel had plans to change a rule forbidding non-Muslims from praying there.
But in Hebron, the father of the 19-year-old who carried out a stabbing at the Gush Etzion Junction says his son's motivations weren't simply religious. He had seen young Palestinian attackers and alleged attackers killed by the Israeli army and got drawn into the cycle of violence.
"The situation in Hebron was very difficult at that time," Nadi Abu Shkheidem tells me. "Izz al-Din was always following events on Facebook."
"Many were shot dead at the checkpoints, including girls. This heated the anger of our young men. They went to avenge them - before al-Aqsa, before the land, before everything."
At Alon Shvut, a settlement by the junction, the sons of Yaakov Don lead mourning prayers at their synagogue. The teacher, known for his broad smile, was murdered last November.
A Palestinian gunman opened fire at cars heading to the roundabout. He also shot dead an American student and a Palestinian driver.
Image captionMaor Don (right) with his brother
"He didn't even regret killing the Palestinian," says Maor Don. "These people are so full of hate. They just want to kill and don't want any peace at all."
Despite their terrible experience, the Don family is determined to continue living in Gush Etzion. "It's important to stay," Maor says. "Historically this is a very important place for Jewish people."
In the early 20th Century, Jews bought land in this area. But in fighting with Arab armies in 1948, they were forced out or killed. After Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, Jews returned.
Settlements are seen as illegal under international law but Israel disagrees.
Now Gush Etzion is 30 times larger than it was historically. Areas of Palestinian land have been added to it causing deep resentment. But at the same time, 4,500 Palestinians work in Gush Etzion. It's an uneasy economic relationship that many Israelis see as a model for peaceful co-existence.
In the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zkarya, surrounded by settlements, there's a different perspective.
"It's difficult," says Mohammed Saad, a farmer, as he prunes his grape vines. "Israel forbids us from building and we've lost some land. Our harvests aren't enough, so we must work in the settlements to raise our children."
Since the recent unrest, new security restrictions at the Gush Etzion Junction are having an impact here. "We're now isolated," Mohammed says. "There's a new checkpoint and only people with an ID for Khirbet Zkarya can access it."
At the roundabout local settlers are protected by heavily armed soldiers. For them, this site is a symbol of the dangers they face every day.
For Palestinians it represents Israel's occupation. And I expect more bad news from the Gush Etzion Junction.
With no hope of a political solution in sight, it offers a worrying glimpse of a future where both sides in this conflict continue to live with simmering tensions and eruptions of violence.
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