Army officer completes first-ever base jump in India

New Delhi: This army officer intercepts and disrupts enemy communications for a living but also loves jumping off high rising buildings.

Lt Colonel Satyendra Verma carried out India's first ever base jump from a 450-ft tall Pitampura TV tower building in the Capital early morning on Friday.

Colonel Verma, who is a professional sky diver, has completed this feat as part of the Army Signal Corps centenary year celebrations.

BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span (Bridge) and Earth and this advanced form of free fall jump is a major sport around the world.

Verma, with over 1,100 skydivings to his credit, is an experienced BASE jumper and had achieved the feat earlier from the telecom tower in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Perrine
Bridge in the US.

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It took him more than a year to get the permission for this daredevil act from the owners of the building.

For the jump, the Army had earlier carried out a technical study of the site and found that the feat was possible, given the Pitampura TV tower's location beside the Delhi Development Authority's cricket ground.
     
In this form of extreme, adventure sport, the jumper takes a free fall off the tower, but carries an unopened parachute. As the jumper approaches the ground, the canopy
opens up for a safe landing.

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"This sport is attempted only by experienced skydivers to ensure that the jumper completely understands the concept of body positioning in free fall and is capable of immediate and
suitable response to any canopy malfunction," the officers said.

BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar sports such as skydiving from an aircraft and is regarded by many as an 'extreme sport'.

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BASE numbers are awarded to those, who have made at least one jump from each of the four categories -- buildings, antennas, spans or bridges, and Earth (such as mountain
cliffs). (With PTI Inputs)