“I will fall and I will die if you do not let me go – I will fall and I will die.”
That’s what daredevil Jeb Corliss told security guards at the Empire State Building as they grabbed him and stopped him from leaping off the landmark’s 86th-floor observation deck, new video of the April 2006 incident shows.
Corliss and his lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, released the dramatic footage after they filed a $30 million suit against the Empire State Building and the guards who Corliss claims nearly caused him a grisly death.
The building last year filed a $12 million suit against Corliss, charging that his attempted stunt endangered “the ESB’s customers, tenants, visitors and employees, as well as the public at large.”
Corliss – an experienced BASE (building, antenna, span, earth) jumper – said he knew exactly what he was doing, and was not endangering anyone.
“No one was in any danger of being injured except me,” said Corliss, 31.
A spokeswoman for the skyscraper declined comment.
Corliss had managed to sneak his gear into the building by wearing a “fat” suit and a disguise. He ditched the suit in the observatory bathroom, but was still wearing his phony handlebar moustache when he tried to make his leap, the video shows.
The guards cuffed him to the fence – a move that could have been fatal to him had any of them come into contact with his parachute, Heller said. Had the chute opened while he was cuffed, it would have torn his torso from his limbs, Heller claims.
Corliss said he begged the guards to listen to him, but they ignored his pleas. He credits cops with saving his life by cutting the chute off him.
He was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, but a judge tossed that charge.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is appealing the ruling.
The Empire State Building’s suit charges that Corliss hurt its business because officials had to close the observation deck for a few hours .
Corliss said what the guards did caused him to develop “adrenal-fatigue syndrome,” similar “to battle-fatigue syndrome.”