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CNN Sunday Morning
Man Breaks 24-Hour Skydiving Record
Aired May 20, 2001 - 09:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Skydiver Michael Zang, seen here, was also out this weekend doing his part to raise money for the Special Olympics but his way was a little more hair raising. He attempted to break the world record for the most skydiving jumps in a 24-hour period -- the number to beat, 476.
And joining us on the line this morning from Lewisville, Texas is Michael Zang who is recuperating, now, from his effort. The 24-hour period ended yesterday evening -- Michael....
MICHAEL ZANG, SKYDIVER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: ... drumroll, please. Good morning to you.
Did you do it?
ZANG: We did it. In fact, we made 500 skydives.
O'BRIEN: Five hundred? So you beat it by some 24 jumps. Did you expect to do that well?
ZANG: We anticipated at least breaking the record and ever since the beginning we said that we were going to go for 500.
O'BRIEN: Five hundred jumps in 24 hours -- what was the hardest part about doing it?
ZANG: The worst part was late at night and that was sleep deprivation. But drinking the energy drink Red Bull and made it through the night. And then the other hard part was early in the morning I had had a sting on my ankle and it was quite painful but the doctors were able to work on it, get me right back in the air in less than five minutes so we had very little down time.
O'BRIEN: And just to explain the logistics on this were something. You had two turbo-powered, single engine aircraft and an entire team that was doing the rigging for you. The entire effort required an awful lot of help, as I understand it. How many people were on the team?
ZANG: We had about 150 volunteers that gave up quite a bit of their time to be out there and several practice sessions. They worked real hard. They were the backbone of this entire event. O'BRIEN: All right, so I've got to ask you, you said you had sleep deprivation, did you get a chance to do a little cat nap on the way up to altitude or...
ZANG: I had one minute and about a minute and 15 second every time we climbed to altitude and there was absolutely no chance for a cat nap. The first 1,000 feet we were going through the gear making sure that all of the gear was correct and the next 1,000 feet we were lining up the airplane for the jump.
O'BRIEN: How high -- and being the record, what altitude did you have to attain?
ZANG: We had to jump from at least 2,100 feet so I could open the parachute by 2,000 feet.
O'BRIEN: And the fall down took how long?
ZANG: It took approximately 50 seconds from the time that I left the airplane to the time I was touching down.
O'BRIEN: Did you ever think about quitting?
ZANG: There were several times when I did. Jump number 438, I slipped off of the step...
O'BRIEN: Oh, wow. Wow.
ZANG: ... on the -- going up into the airplane. Banged my knee real hard and it was a very painful experience every time I was walking on it -- it just hurt. And I was thinking, "I can just quit now. And everybody wouldn't think anything less of me." But the volunteers said, "Just keep on going -- keep on going. You'll regret it if you don't." So we did it. And then once we broke the record, they, once again, told me, "Just keep on going, keep on going."
O'BRIEN: All right. And unless some people at home are a little confused as to why Michael would attempt this, it was for a good cause. Let's take a look at this Web site, which can be found at "jump -- the numeral four -- kids" -- jump4kids.org. And, Michael, just explain why you were doing this while we just take a look at the site briefly.
ZANG: Well, it was a big fund-raiser for Special Olympics. It was something that my wife and I had talked about doing for a little while. We had kidded about it -- joked back and forth. And, finally, when we decided that we were going to do it, we decided to make it a Special Olympics fund-raiser. And, hopefully, it will be a very successful one.
O'BRIEN: And do you know what the bottom line is?
ZANG: Right now it was somewhere around 40,000 total raised. We were shooting for 100. Hopefully that will come in now.
O'BRIEN: All right. I'm sure that figure goes up and down at times.
ZANG: Yeah.
O'BRIEN: Anyway, Michael Zang, thank you very much. Congratulations to you on entering the "Guinness Book of World Records." Five hundred jumps in 24 hours and all for a good cause. We appreciate you being with us on CNN Sunday Morning.
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