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The Seattle Police Department is searching for two men who climbed over the glass wall of the city’s iconic Space Needle on Friday, flipped over the edge and parachuted down from the 605-foot structure.

The jumpers face trespassing charges, according to a report provided by Public Affairs Officer Brian Pritchard.

The BASE jumpers purchased tickets and entered the Space Needle at about 8:50 p.m. Friday, according to the Seattle Police Department. The popular attraction has a round observation deck surrounded by high glass windows that are open to the sky above.

They were seen on camera at the top level of the Needle then went into a restroom, coming out with helmets on, according to police.

They ran to the glass window, climbed over to the other side, and jumped off, according to police.

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[-] lyrial@anarchist.nexus 4 points 12 hours ago

Aren't parachutes a pretty conspicuous piece of equipment? I would have thought that staff would know to look for them. I might be ignorant here though.

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

There’s not that much security there so even if staff noticed depending on how things went there wouldn’t have been much time to seriously react to the “threat” but also, who cares? They didn’t hurt anyone

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 hours ago

The ones I've worn look like this:

That's not a skydiving chute, it's an emergency escape chute, worn by aerobatic and test pilots in case they need to walk back to the airport. I'll never forget the first time I wore one, it was during spin lessons during instructor training. In shockingly few words this guy explained to me how to fly and land the tightly folded aircraft strapped to my back. The large silver handle here on this shoulder strap, pull it all the way out to deploy, look up, grab the loops, pull them down to your ears, pull left to go left pull right to go right, as you come in to land pull all the way down. I asked "Okay, how do you deploy the reserve chute?" He said "That IS the reserve chute. Plan A is landing the plane."

You wouldn't mistake it for a school backpack. It's not something you could easily hide under clothing without looking really strange.

[-] lyrial@anarchist.nexus 1 points 11 hours ago

Yeah, that's what is weird about it. They were not stopped immediately on entry, which is confusing to me. Someone really failed to do their job here.

this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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