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Swiss 'birdman' glides across the Alps in free fall

Hurtling over peaks at 310 mph, a Swiss man flew over the Alps in a wing suit on Saturday, in what his team said was the first time the mountain range had been crossed in a free fall.
Image: Birdman
Swiss "birdman" Remo Laeng makes a practice run on Friday in preparation for Saturday's successful wingsuit flight across the Alps.Marcel Kuhn / Keystone via AP
/ Source: Reuters

Hurtling over peaks at 310 mph, a Swiss man flew over the Alps in a wing suit on Saturday, in what his team said was the first time the mountain range had been crossed in a free fall.

Parachutist Remo Laeng, 36, jumped from a plane 7,500 meters (24,600 feet) up, near the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, and sped south over the Alps.

Laeng flew for four minutes before crossing the 4,314-meter-high (14,153-foot-high) Grand Combin peak in southwest Switzerland to mark the feat.

Wing-suit flying, first developed in the 1990s, uses a special jumpsuit with webbing between the limbs to add surface area to the body and give it lift to enable the wearer to glide towards the ground before deploying a parachute.

Laeng triggered his parachute after a seven-minute ride, covering 26 kilometers (16 miles) horizontally, before landing safely in Aosta, Italy, the Swiss news agency SDA reported.

One of his greatest challenges during the flight was judging whether he had enough altitude to get over the Grand Combin.

"I don't run any risks," he said. "If I see that it is not enough I would break off the flight ... I never had any doubts."