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Thwarted Empire State Building Parachute Attempt
By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 28, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 28, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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To be filed in the "totally crazy, harmless stuff that happens on tall buildings": "Renowned daredevil" Jeb Ray Corliss tried to jump off the 86th floor observation deck at the Empire State Building. The only thing is that somebody called in a tip to the police saying this would happen, so security was on the watch and ultimately able to stop him. Of course, Corliss managed to jump over the safety fence and was on the outside, so they had to remove part of the fence to retrieve him! A 15 year old tourist says that she thought he was trying to commit suicide at first and one woman tried to lure Corliss back to the deck with cash. Another tourist told the Post Corliss said, "Look, if you don't let go so I can do this, I'm going to die." The Empire State Building's building manager Timothy Donohue's attitude? "It's New York City, it's rush hour. It is not the time to jump off buildings."
What's somewhat alarming is that Corliss managed to get up to the observation deck with his gear - he wore an elaborate fat suit in order to get in (the fat suit hid his parachute and video camera!) - past the ESB security. When he got to the 86th floor, Corliss changed out of the fat suit (leaving it there) and put on his parachute. But who called in the tip? A rival stunt man with a beef? Anyway, the Empire State Building is 75 - she's seen her share of wackiness (and the lights are white tonight).
The NY Times' City section was all about the ESB's 75 years last weekend - read it before it disappears into archive land. Corliss has jumped off the Petronas Towers in Malaysia; you can see one of his BASE jumping demos at iFilm and he also hosts the Discovery show, Stunt Junkies.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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