Coffin Skydive: Escape Artist Executes Death Defying Mid-Air Stunt

A coffin skydive entails wriggling free from chains and handcuffs and working out of a wooden casket that’s plummeting to the earth 14,500 feet below.

That’s exactly what daredevil Anthony Martin pulled off Tuesday, performing his stunt over northern Illinois. He was able to slide free of his shackles and get out the box in time to pull his parachute and float safely to the ground below.

After he pulled off the feat Martin waved to cameras and the crowd that turned out to watch the coffin skydive.

This is actually the second time Anthony Martin has pulled off a coffin skydive. He performed the same stunt back in 1988, on what was then just his 17th skydive.

Martin said he fell in love with magic and escapes at an early age, and started to tinker with locks to find out how they worked and what it took to spring them.

“At 10 I had pretty much started to specialize in escapes,” Martin said. “By the time I was 13, the sheriff was locking me in his handcuffs. And I was getting out.”

Martin’s performed a number of other dangerous stunts in his day, including being locked into a cage and lowered through the ice into the water of a frigid Wisconsin quarry. Within two minutes he was free and back to the water’s surface.

“It was very, very cold,” Martin said. “It doesn’t take long for your fingers, even with gloves, to get numb and lose effectiveness… you have to work very quickly.”

For Tuesday’s skydive, Martin admits he was a bit disoriented in the moment when he came free and somersaulted out of the box.

”I didn’t know where I was… but I was hypnotized as I watched the box falling behind me,” he said.

Not everyone made it out of the coffin skydive unscathed, however. One of the two fellow parachuters who were spotting the coffin got hit in the face when the wind shook the box violently from side to side.