Man leaps from Burj Dubai

A British man has jumped from the Burj Dubai and broken the world record for the highest base jump from a building, but will face charges in a Dubai court next week for failing to have official permission.

The 36-year old adventurer told UAE newspaper 7 Days on Wednedsay that he climbed 150 floors of stairs without being spotted by security guards.

“The Burj Dubai is the world’s tallest building and is a marvel of the world - I wanted to honour it, Emaar and Dubai by jumping safely from it,” the man, who wished to remain anonyomous, said.

“I’m a sportsman, not a criminal. I’m responsible for my actions, but I’m regretful of any trouble it has caused the Dubai authorities as this wasn’t my intention.”

UAE real estate developer Emaar has built the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building which stands at 629 metres as of April 7.

Base-jumping involves the use of a parachute to jump from four types of "fixed objects" - Building, Antenna, Span, Earth (BASE).

The man beat the previous unofficial record for a base jump from the tallest building held by Austrian national Felix Baumgartner who jumped from the Taipei 101 Tower, the world's tallest completed building at a height of 509 metres, in December 2007.

Officials at the Public Prosecution department said the man was arrested following last month’s jump and is due in court next week charged with illegally entering a property. He could face a year in jail and a fine of 5,000 UAE dirhams ($1,361).

Sources close to the case say that the base jump was filmed to provide the evidence necessary to enter the Guiness Book of World Records.

“His helmet had a video camera to record his jump - he didn’t try to get permission from Emaar because he was afraid that they would reject his request," said a source to 7 Days.

“He came to the UAE specifically to do the jump. His altimeter said he jumped from a height of more than 600 metres.”

Brigadier Abdul Jalil Mahdi, Deputy Director of Dubai police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for Preventative Security, told UAE newspaper Gulf News that if the man had had permission, he would have been allowed to jump, but without permission, it was a violation of safety and security procedures.

The base-jumper's defence lawyer, Hamdan Al-Harmi said his client was not guilty of the charges he faced.

“Jumping from a building is not a crime because my client is professional and was secured,” said Al-Harmi, a partner at UAE law firm Al-Sharif Advocates.

“He has done many jumps before and he knew what he was doing. It is not a crime to enter an under-construction building and he didn’t know that it was forbidden to do so."

"He had no evil intentions.”

This was the second attempt in April to base jump from the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest free-standing structure. A 47-year-old Frenchman was arrested last month at the tower with his parachute equipment while attempting the same feat.