World of Sport

‘Bird man’ smashes legs in Table Mountain leap

Daredevil basejumper Jeb Corliss has become famous around the world over the last few years thanks to his series of online videos showing off his death-defying aerial stunts.

His quest for ever more outrageous base jumping and extreme flying stunts has led him to jump off the Eiffel Tower, glide through a Swiss waterfall and whizz through a hole in a Chinese mountain.

So few eyebrows were raised when, for his latest trick, the 35-year-old decided to jump off Table Mountain in Cape Town. Few eyebrows, that is, until his stunt went horribly wrong:

The American was just a minute or so into his flight when he misjudged his trajectory over one of the many ridges on the South African landmark. He smashed both his legs as he clobbered into the mountainside, but managed to save his life by quickly deploying his emergency parachute to slow his descent onto the rocky terrain below.

Corliss is still in hospital, but it hoping to be released later this week: "Mr Corliss needed extensive surgery on his legs and also needed skin grafts to repair the damage," said a hospital spokeswoman.

"He suffered serious and injuries and remains in the hospital, although he has been making good progress in recovery. One of the reasons he is still with us is that we needed to check how the wounds would heal from the skin grafts, but we hope to be able to discharge him on Friday. After that he plans to return home immediately to America to be with his family."

Still, at least he's got his laptop to entertain him in hospital, as he has now posted this latest video to share his excruciating moment with the world.

 
  • tom horse  •  3 months ago
    will ryanair never stop with their cost cutting ideas
    • Gareth 3 months ago
      haha nice!
    • A Yahoo! User 3 months ago
      you can tell it was a Ryan Air flight due to his lack of bags
    • Parisa 3 months ago
      haha
  • Paul  •  3 months ago
    LIMERICK: When Bird Man jumped of of a cliff,
    With an outcrop he had a slight tiff.
    Though he broke both his legs
    And soiled his kegs,
    He's lucky he isn't a stiff.
  • lee  •  St Albans, England  •  3 months ago
    he was lucky it was only his legs that hit the mountain
    • Tim 3 months ago
      Do you mean his testicles peut etre?
    • monkey grumble 3 months ago
      yes lucky he didn,t have a hard-on
    • CP 3 months ago
      He might''ve steered better with a #$%$.. Don't wish to speculate any further on it though!
  • John  •  3 months ago
    You play with matches, you get burned.
    • Big Manfred 3 months ago
      you play with booze you get smashed but you play with rocks you also get smashed!!!
    • John 3 months ago
      You're quite the Poet BM !
    • StevieG 3 months ago
      That's probably why he does it, you know the danger that you don't get from a keyboard!
  • Themba  •  3 months ago
    He got his #$%$ kiked by Table mountain
  • Merlynson  •  3 months ago
    I love the ty at the end, what a good guy.
  • Alexander  •  3 months ago
    ups....
  • Tom  •  Manchester, England  •  3 months ago
    The amazing Human Mind is used in different ways.! This was like something out of a Bond movie.!
  • Jon Holcomb  •  Plymouth, United States  •  3 months ago
    Heal up, dude. youch!
  • snaphappy  •  Newton Abbot, England  •  3 months ago
    The end credits could almost be an Oscars acceptance speech but he forgot to mention his manager, mum, dad and all his unborn babies.
  • Ricky  •  Fremont, United States  •  3 months ago
    IDIOT! but with balls lol
    • Keith M 3 months ago
      Lucky he's still got those.
  • Igor  •  Ipswich, England  •  3 months ago
    Johnny Knoxville (JACKASS) you ought to learn from this crazy M....F...er!
  • alan phillips  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
    I would give all of my worthless 55 years on this planet for 2 minutes of this guys life. GO JEB!
  • Mark  •  Manchester, England  •  3 months ago
    Nice one, pity he didn't smash through the bl**din advertisement at the beginning of the film clip . . . . What a pain !
  • Euan  •  Edinburgh, Scotland  •  3 months ago
    what a bunch of joyless, po faced moaners, here is a guy who's grabbed life by the balls, ok he might die years before any of you but atleast he's lived in the first place... i bet the biggest excitement most of the people in this comment section ever get is when gary at work wears an unusual tie or mavis across the road buys new curtains...
  • Tylor Lamani  •  Cape Town, South Africa  •  3 months ago
    never to be repeated again I'm sure, thats Table mountain my friend, becareful, cape town tends to be windy
  • Adrian Paul M  •  Walsall, England  •  3 months ago
    Looks like he was trying to get a really close fly-by to the cameraman. Amazing he could deploy despite being in shock with seriously injuring both his legs!
  • bee  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
    Imagine the rush you must get flying from a mountain down to that town... I wish I had the balls to throw myself off a cliff!
  • Stephen  •  Ilford, England  •  3 months ago
    These guys are amazing! ... I only wish I had a bit of their balls.

    ( which came out completely wrong b.w.t.f!! )
  • KAREEM  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
    Ouch!!

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