In October 2003, Kirk Jones survived a plunge over Niagara Falls claiming it was a stunt but admitted later he was trying to kill himself.

Going over the edge with just clothes on his back Jones was the first person to survive without a life jacket or the protection of a barrel or inflatable.

Jones vowed then never to do it again, saying, “I understand what I did was wrong. You’ll never see an action in Niagara waters with my name written on it again.”

Two weeks ago, Jones’ body was found downriver from the falls after he apparently tried again, according to police.

His body was discovered about 12 miles from the falls at the mouth of Lake Ontario, said Det. Sgt. Brian Nisbet of the New York State Park Police.

Jones appeared on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” a week after his first attempt and described going feet-first over the falls, staring into a sunny sky. He heard people screaming that there was a man in the water, he said. He felt the river moving fast toward the falls, with the sound of the rushing water getting louder.

“I felt like and heard a suction — a suction that, like a large vacuum cleaner, you suck up an insect on the counter,” Jones said in the interview. “And I was actually sucked inside, immediately, inside the curtain of the falls. Inside it. And enveloped in it, actually.”

He recalled spiraling as he fell at a tremendous speed. He felt an “unbelievable” pressure on his head, he said in the TV interview.

Jones recalled feeling pain when he crashed into a granite table at the bottom of the falls, then blacking out temporarily. When he came to underwater, he swam up to the surface and took his first breath, he said.

 

Unofficial Networks Newsletter

Get the latest snow and mountain lifestyle news and entertainment delivered to your inbox.

Hidden
Newsletters
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.