Sparks Fly as Skydivers Glide Past a Dazzling Supermoon in Epic Red Bull Stunt!

Trailing sparks between their wingsuits, the Red Bull Air Force swept into Los Angeles from above on Thursday (March 20) to celebrate the third and final supermoon of 2019.

A dramatic video shows one of the jumpers gliding into the downtown of the California city, carefully skirting a skyscraper along the way. As traffic clogs the scene below, the jumper pops open a parachute and carefully scans the landscape for his landing area, a cleared-out street. Moments later, a second jumper lands just in front of the first.

More scenes from the 4-minute video show several views of the jumpers flying into Los Angeles, including some footage with an eerie shot of the supermoon shrouded behind cloud. (A supermoon occurs when the moon is at its full phase and at the closest point to Earth in the natural satellite's elliptical or oval-shaped orbit.)

The three participating jumpers — Jon Devore, Mike Swanson and Andy Farrington — have more than 70,000 skydives among them, Red Bull representatives said in a statement. The jumpers' suits included LED lights and sparking pyrotechnics bright enough to trend on Twitter in LA; many residents typed #meteor during the wingsuit descent.

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The Red Bull flyers' journey took them from a helicopter 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) above the City of Angels to touch down following a 1-mile (1.6 kilometers) descent. This is the first time anybody has done a wingsuit jump into downtown Los Angeles, Red Bull representatives said.

See more views from the event in the gallery below:

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace