Canary Wharf Base jump: extreme sport duo jump from 48th floor

Drinkers on bar balcony told ‘See you later guys’ as pair leap off building

A pair of base jumpers throw themselves from the top of Canary Wharf. (EpicTV.com)

Two men walked into a bar on the 48th floor of a Canary Wharf building and jumped off the balcony.

The men, who wish to remain anonymous, are professional BASE jumpers, and they are constantly looking for their next big thrill.

Wearing no safety gear other than a helmet and a parachute, the pair walked through the Attic Bar on the 48 floor of Pan Peninsula in Canary Wharf, and stepped up onto the balcony while drinkers were stood looking out onto the view.

The onlookers heard the pair say “See you later guys,” and “Have fun, see you,” before watching the jumpers leap from the building, pulling on their parachute chords seconds into the free fall.

One of the jumpers has a camera strapped to him, and captures the moment that he lands on the pavement just next to the water, saying “Greetings” to a couple of surprised bystanders.

He checks to see where his friend went, and whether his friend was walking or not after his land, and the pair run off to a getaway car, where they are chased by police. The police pulled them over but did not charge them.

BASE jumping is an extreme sport where people jump off fixed - and fairly impressive - objects such as sky scrapers or antenna towers. The acronym stands for building, antenna, span, meaning a beam or a bridge, and earth, meaning a cliff face or similar.

But it does not come without its risks; an online “Base fatality list” documents the amount of people who have died while attempting jumps, and has 234 deaths recorded since 1981.

This month two men were killed in France in separate Base jump attempts, one in the Alps and one in the Pyrenees, but both deaths are thought to have been caused by failed parachutes.

The Canary Wharf pair remained unperturbed, however. They submitted their video from July to EpicTV as evidence that they had found an “un-jumped exit within the London city”.

They said they spent a long time planning the jump, checking all the relevant safety issues and keeping an eye on wind speed, which is documented in the video.

“This jump is something that we’ve been planning for a good few years now,” the pair said in the Evening Standard.

“Looking at safety issues, access to the bar, where we could get changed, outside areas and a quick escape route too. On the night itself, we were there for a few hours just chatting.

“The wind speed was a bit too high so we were just waiting for it to pass.

“When last orders was called, we checked the wind speed again and luckily it was safe so that was our moment to jump”.

“It was an incredibly ballsy way to do it. Striding across the bar and the bar staff just didn’t spot us.

“Now, I just have a huge sense of accomplishment having succeeded in jumping off such an iconic building in London.”