Escape artist plans life-threatening drop from aircraft

Anthony Martin, a nationally-recognized escape artist, has announced plans to attempt an escape he survived 25 years ago but with additional life threatening challenges.

In this new stunt, Martin will be handcuffed before donning a parachute and locked in a freight box with a "keyless" lock. Locksmiths will scramble the lock combination rendering it nonfunctional. He will then be shoved out of the cargo bay of an aircraft at a height ten times that of the Empire State Building in a daring race with death.

Martin, 47, will have to free himself from the plummeting missile as it speeds to the earth at 200 feet per second. The escape artist has set Aug. 6 at 3 p.m. EDT as the date and time of the perilous feat.

Martin accomplished the first time ever stunt when he was only 22 years of age in 1988. Now with over 20 years of additional experience and a litany of death defying feats to his credit he feels the time has come to improve upon this - his signature escape. The escape artist has been lowered under the ice in steel cages, buried alive in Las Vegas and has jumped handcuffed above the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. This will be the 25^th anniversary of the harrowing escape and will coincide with the release of Martin's new book "Escape Or Die - An escape artist unlocks the secret to cheating death."

The escape is being made possible by the sponsorship of Skydive Chicago, which will both prepare Martin and host the event at its skydiving facility in Ottawa, Ill.

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