2 min readNew YorkMar 25, 2014 01:14 PM IST
First published on: Mar 25, 2014 at 01:06 PM IST
Three extreme-skydiving enthusiasts accused of parachuting off the 1 World Trade Centre tower last year were arrested, authorities said, in a second criminal case in two weeks arising from surreptitious stunts at the nation’s tallest skyscraper.
The three daredevils and someone accused of being an accomplice were facing charges including felony burglary in a September 30 leap from the building, where a teenage boy was arrested on March 16.
Authorities said the teen had slipped through a gap in a fence, eluded an inattentive security guard and spent about two hours atop the 1,776-foot-tall tower.
The incidents have raised questions about security at the lower Manhattan site, which is supposed to be one of the most tightly protected in the US The site is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The New York Police Department said last fall that investigators were looking for two parachutists in dark jumpsuits seen floating near the building around 3 a.m. on Sept. 30, landing by a nearby skyscraper and walking away.
It was “very exhilarating,” one of the accused jumpers, Andrew Rossig, said Monday as he and co-defendant James Brady headed to a police precinct to surrender.
“It’s a fair amount of free-fall time,” he said. “You really get to enjoy the view of the city and see it from a different perspective.”
Rossig, an avid BASE jumper, the acronym stands for “building, antenna, span, earth”, said the skydivers took care to keep from endangering anyone, choosing a time when streets would be largely deserted. Brady, an ironworker who formerly
worked at the trade center, declined to comment.
It wasn’t immediately clear how investigators zeroed in on Rossig, Brady, skydiving instructor Marko Markovich and Kyle Hartwell, accused of being their cohort on the ground.
Police searched their homes last month and got video of the jump, which hadn’t been posted online or otherwise publicized, Rossig attorney Timothy Parlatore said.
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