A group of 30 skydivers will literally be in the air to catch the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
In an interview with Fox News, Berger revealed that he and his co-owner, Jason Berger of Skydive the Falls, located nine miles north-northeast of Niagara Falls, in Youngstown New York, took on the challenge because one of their friends, Stephen Hatz had done an eclipse jump several years earlier in Oregon, and wanted to do it for the next eclipse.
Berger began to plan his dream when he realized that the eclipse of April 8, 2008, would reach totality over his skydiving center.
The co-founder, along with his team, began planning their solar eclipse event nine months ago.
“Nature has given us a special event, the eclipse. How can we make it even more extreme? Make it a bit cooler?” Berger said to Fox Television stations.
He shared that only three planes will be present, and a few skydivers from Texas and California are expected to participate in the celestial leap on April 8.
Skydivers say that the timing is everything. It has to be just right.
Berger stated, “We’re going jump one minute before totality so we can fully enjoy totality under our parachute.”
The planes are arranged to avoid congestion in the skies.
He continued, “We also have different sizes of parachutes which will open at various altitudes to maintain safety and separation.”
After that, they will freefall wearing eclipse glasses. The skydivers will then deploy their parachutes and land on the earth.
We will be wearing our glasses, which makes it much quieter and safer when the parachute is opened.
Tickets for this epic event went on sale in January and were sold out within seven minutes.
The lucky ones who got a place are skydivers with thousands of jumps.
Berger said that we had opened up some slots for first-timers. “For example, I will be working with one of the first-timers, and also with a couple of other instructors who are very, very skilled,” Berger explained.
It’s great to be able to share this with someone for the first time.
The jumpers will never forget this solar eclipse viewing party — thousands of feet in the air.
Berger said that he has a lot of stories about skydiving, but that this would be an entirely new experience for him.
He said, “I haven’t done much skydiving yet. This is one of those things.”
“For me, it keeps things exciting and alive… It is just another check off the logbook.”
