From Thailand, a Legend
The 400-Way World Record and Royal Sky Celebration 2006
By Kevin Gibson

The latest episode of World Team, the fifth since USPA National Director B.J. Worth and his wife, Bobbie, first formed the group in 1994, began in late January as the team’s skydiving contingent departed from 30 nations on six continents to Thailand. In Udon Thani, the team jumped out of five Royal Thai Air Force C-130s in an attempt to build a 400-way.

Two days before the record, circumstances limited the team to one jump, but it became the first time the base completed. The next day, the group finished the second of two jumps with seven sectors complete and only one jumper missing from the picture.

Finally, on Wednesday, February 8, the group made all three scheduled jumps. On the first one, everyone could see what the completed formation would look like, with 376 skydivers docked at breakoff. The second jump went without a hitch and resulted in a 399-way.

As one jumper put it, not many participants expected the formation to complete on Wednesday’s third attempt, but each felt resolved not to be the one who caused the problem. Each jumper remained relaxed and executed the relatively easy job of exiting the aircraft and docking in order on a stable formation. The world’s first completed 400-way held for 4.25 seconds.

The team then returned to Bangkok, where the Royal Sky Celebration Organizing Committee had assembled more than 500 skydivers from the Royal Thai armed services and police to combine with World Team for a mass freefall jump Guinness Book world record. The drop continued non-stop for nearly 15 minutes before a crowd of several thousand both on the airport and outside the perimeters.

Clearly, World Team has set the new standard not just for freefall formations but for what an event of this size can mean to others and must mean to truly call itself a world record.

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