Three Russians set a world record for parachuting from the Earth’s stratosphere to the North Pole last week in a mission that also served as a test of a new prototype communications system for use in the Arctic, an organiser of the venture told Reuters.
Mikhail Korniyenko, Alexander Lynnik and Denis Yefremov hurled themselves from an Ilyushin-76 plane at a height of 10,500 metres (34,450 feet) and spent about two and a half minutes in freefall before opening their chutes 1,000 metres above the ground. The descent was captured in a spectacular video.
All three suffered some frostbite to their cheeks, despite wearing heated masks, said organiser Nikita Tsaplin. As they plunged at a speed of more than 300 km/h, the air temperature of around -50 Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit) felt like -70C (-94F).
