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In pictures: high fliers
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The first recorded base jumps took place in 1912, when one man jumped from New York's statue of Liberty, and another died after leaping from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower. These jumpers are wearing wingsuits, which provide lift, like a flying squirrel's skin flaps.
Base jumpers leap from an alpine cliff in the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland. Base jumping involves leaping off a fixed object, either Building, Antenna, Span or the Earth, and unraveling a parachute on the way down. One study showed that the sport has a record of one fatality for every 60 participants.