Two pilots tried to swap planes in midair and it went badly wrong

Drinks company Red Bull is known for sponsoring extreme stunts, some of which have seen people skydive from the edge of space.

But, the company’s most recent sponsored stunt, unfortunately, didn’t go to plan as two pilots attempted to swap planes in midair.

The daring stunt with pilots and cousins Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington took place on 24 April over the scrubland of Arizona.

The plan had been for each pilot to switch the engine of their plane off, sending it into a nosedive, while the two pilots jumped out and free fell towards their partner’s plane.

Had it been successful, both pilots would have entered the other plane through the window and began piloting that aircraft to safely land it.

But, things didn’t turn out that way as only one of the pilots was able to find their way to the nosediving plane.

The other pilot was forced to abandon the stunt and utilise their parachute. The other plane crashed to the ground.

Farrington landed to safety with his parachute due to the Cessna 182 plane he was meant to enter spinning out of control, rather than dropping straight down like the other plane.

Footage of the risky stunt was live-streamed at the time. Some fans took their own recordings while watching the stunt and footage posted online shows how it went wrong.

One viewer can be heard saying: “Oh that plane’s not good.”

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Meanwhile on the stream, someone can be heard repeating over the radio: “Blue plane is out of control.”

Someone on Twitter joked: “Guess @redbull needs a new tag line bc that plane had no wings.”

Another argued: “Humans are constantly looking for ways to die.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the stunt after Red Bull’s application request for a safety exemption to perform the stunt was denied.

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