The Hilton Hotel Base Jumpers

By Rob Last edited 217 months ago
The Hilton Hotel Base Jumpers
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If you haven't already seen this splashed all over the front page of tonight's Standard then brace yourselves:

Two daredevil base jumpers risked death after leaping off the top of the 330ft high Hilton Hotel in London's Park Lane.

The unknown pair's astonishing stunt was caught on camera by a film location manager taking shots for the new James Bond film Casino Royale.

It's amost too perfect isn't it?

The Bond employee, a Mr Charlie Somers of Clapham, describes the jump in dramatic detail:

I just heard this almighty whoosh. It was like someone had just set fire to a whole load of petrol, a huge crack above my head. It was unbelievable

I looked up and saw the first man sailing down, land on the grassy area outside the hotel, calmly gather his parachute and walk over to his car.

Then the next man leapt off and he must have fallen about 100 feet before he pulled his parachute out - it was amazing. They jumped right off the top and at first I thought may be they had not paid their bill in the Windows restaurant or perhaps the food had been really bad.

I have been in the film business a few years and we have shot some exciting scenes but this was really something else. It was such a dangerous thing to do but both men were so calm - they just gathered up their gear and sped away in the waiting car.

The Hilton has launched an investigation into how the two men were able to perform the stunt.

When you consider a man died back in 92 trying to do a similar thing (carrying a box of Milk Tray, we kid you not) we guess that someone's going to get a proper bollocking for this one.

Last Updated 02 February 2006