David Blaine Ascends To 25,000 Feet, Suspended By 52 Balloons

David Blaine Ascends To 25,000 Feet, Suspended By 52 Balloons

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Well, my hands are most definitely sweating at this point, as this is probably simultaneously the most incredible and terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.

Illusionist David Blaine just spent quite a bit of time suspended above the Arizona desert by 52 helium balloons. He “took off” (if you can call it that) from Page Airport in Arizona, and spent roughly an hour suspended in the air.

He continued to gain altitude, and made it all the way up to 25,000 feet. As you’d expect, he needed oxygen at that altitude, given how thin the air gets. He detached himself from the balloons when he passed 25,000 feet, and then entered a free fall, until he deployed his parachute at around 7,000 feet. He ended up landing in the desert, where he was picked up by a helicopter.

You can track his “flight” through Flightradar24 with the registration code N947DB.

You can watch the live feed of the entire event here:

And to add an airline angle to this, kudos to Ryanair for the quick wit…

I’m speechless…

The one thing I’m curious about is if it there was any element of illusion to all of this. After all, Blaine is an illusionist and not a traditional daredevil. Was there some illusion here that we’re missing? Was this all a desert mirage? 😉

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  1. Mizanne Thrope Guest

    Only impressive if he had a plan to retrieve the balloon materials.

  2. cargocult Guest

    It would have been impressive if he were actually hanging on to the apparatus with his own hands and not latched on with a carabiner. That was a lot of effort and build-up for a rather anticlimactic jump. Standing on a 90-foot pole for 35 hours was probably more difficult and dangerous.

  3. Kevin Guest

    Dude has been planning and training for a year and a half.. including multiple rehearsals.. I think he even had to get a pilot license and a commercial hot air balloon license and certified to sky dive solo
    It was real

  4. Todd New Member

    For a real daredevil non-illusionist check this out. Felix put some science behind his “illusion”. Good grief.

    https://newatlas.com/record-setting-manned-balloon-flight-skydive-red-bull-baumgartner/24553/

  5. schar Guest

    You should see some of his tricks in David Dobriks vlogs. The guy is insane!

  6. Michael D Guest

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight

  7. Martk S Member

    Even in these times, we can find something really cool to smile about!!

  8. BT Guest

    We happened to be in Page, AZ and witnessed the event live. Personally watched the balloons gain altitude until nearly out of site. It was the real deal.

  9. THEsocalledfan Guest

    Ben, he is 100% real. Guy is a nutty genius. It was incredible. Check out his podcast he did with Rogan; talks a lot about it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3Zg37nIHo

  10. Vince Guest

    Pretty fascinating with all the planning, training, and tech that went into this if you watch the video. I didn't go through the whole 3 hours but skimmed through most of it and while I'm not normally a fan of how his acts are sensationalized this was impressive. Not sure what some other watched but he is fully harnessed into the balloon setup and is well above the mountains when he disconnects. In the lead...

    Pretty fascinating with all the planning, training, and tech that went into this if you watch the video. I didn't go through the whole 3 hours but skimmed through most of it and while I'm not normally a fan of how his acts are sensationalized this was impressive. Not sure what some other watched but he is fully harnessed into the balloon setup and is well above the mountains when he disconnects. In the lead up they went through all the planning and prep so no illusion with this.

  11. G David Guest

    Totally stole this from Stern. #longliveerictheactor

  12. D3kingg Diamond

    Have you ever seen David Blane spit out live frogs ? That guy is amazing . I’m thinking he could magically change a boarding pass from economy to first class.

  13. JohnnyBoy Guest

    @Ryan
    Lawnchair Larry is my hero. Just a regular guy, a truck driver, who did something amazing.

    It is reported that they asked him why he did it, and his response was "A guy can't just sit around".

  14. Bhalo Guest

    So I guess you haven't heard of 'Lawnchair Larry'.... He went up to 15000 ft in a lawn chair strapped to 45 balloons and this was in 1982! 38 years ago.

    Dang Ryan beat me to this!
    but here some extra...his appearance on David Letterman show
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wWds5r4DZs

  15. Ryan Member

    Just copying Larry Walters.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight

  16. Kalboz Member

    Nice guy but this feat would been interesting a century ago, not to mention this does nothing for our cause célèbre, travel hacking!

  17. neil Diamond

    I can personally report seeing David Blaine reaching an altitude of 35000 ft -- ok it was inside a jetBlue A321 from JFK to SFO 5 years ago. He occasionally would pop out from his seat in Mint and entertain us in even more space with illusions. He performed one card illusion with me that still has me totally mystified.

  18. Todd Diamond

    He explained the planning the whole thing on Rogan: https://youtu.be/NY3Zg37nIHo

  19. JUDY S YU Guest

    So he watched Up recently huh.

  20. Jay Guest

    @Robert Hanson: "A human like black form is seen" Haaaa! Like Drumpf's claim that unnamed people in “dark shadows” are controlling Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. You Drumpsters are laughable.

  21. Colin Guest

    25K? Felix Baumgartner is laughing.

  22. EK Member

    Ryanair won’t let me fly with my baggage and balloons with a fiver anyway

  23. JBR Guest

    Like Houdini, his stunts are the real deal.

  24. Robert Hanson Diamond

    More fake news. Check out the video. A human like black form is seen, apparently nonchalantly holding onto the balloons with only one hand. Really, just using one hand?

    And 25,000 feet? The balloons never get higher than the surrounding mountains, and this not being the Himalayas, that's nowhere near that high. Not a very good illusion in my book.

  25. Joey Guest

    This guy is the real deal. No illusions, just practice and training of the human body. I saw him live remain underwater in a tank for over 9 minutes.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

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Mizanne Thrope Guest

Only impressive if he had a plan to retrieve the balloon materials.

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Wee Guest

No hat on his head ?

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cargocult Guest

It would have been impressive if he were actually hanging on to the apparatus with his own hands and not latched on with a carabiner. That was a lot of effort and build-up for a rather anticlimactic jump. Standing on a 90-foot pole for 35 hours was probably more difficult and dangerous.

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