Australians claim world BASE jump record

SYDNEY: An Australian couple on Friday claimed the world record for the highest BASE jump in history after plunging from a 6,604-meter (21,793-foot) peak in the Himalayas, media reported on Friday.

Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan launched themselves off Meru Peak in northern India on May 23, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said.

The leap broke Singleman's own BASE jumping record of 6,258 meters, set at the Great Tango Tower in Pakistan in 1992.

Singleman told the ABC that he and his wife wore wing-suits that allowed them to glide out from the mountain before opening their parachutes.

"Within four seconds, we were moving away from the cliff at about 100 kilometres an hour and we flew like that down a glacier -- called the Meru Glacier," he said.

"We flew about a kilometre down that glacier, then we opened our parachutes and then landed in the snow," he said.

ABC said the couple had been planning their jump for six years and could only report their success this week after trekking out of the Himalayas.   

Singleman, a doctor, and Swan, a former businesswoman, live in Sydney. BASE jumping involves launches from fixed sites and comes from the acronym (B)uilding, (A)ntenna, (S)pan (bridge) and (E)arth.