Daredevil Falls to Death in Michigan Airshow (Watch)

By James Sheldon on August 22nd, 2011

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Todd Green had been a daredevil and veteran wing-walker for over 25 years. He followed in his father’s professional footsteps and made a career of thrilling audiences at airshows.

Cruising in a bi-plane at the Selfridge National Air Guard Base in Harrison Township, MI, Green was set to exit the open cockpit, take hold of a helicopter flying above the plane and cruise away into the wild blue yonder. As Green exited the plane and reached for the helicopter’s landing skid, he began to lose his grip on the skid, prematurely lost his footing on the plane’s fuselage and completely lost his balance and ability to hold on to anything.

This occurred in a 200 ft. fly-by fashion above the deck, with the crowd looking on. As his body gained separation from the plane, there was a slight audible gasp, but everyone, including the announcer, and the girl next to the camera in the video below, thought it was part of the stunt–a little gag before recreating the fly-by for the actual performance of the stunt.

As emergency personnel, and an ambulance moved to the scene, it quickly set in that the stunt had gone horribly wrong–that Green had plunged 200 feet to the ground below. Green was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, suffering from several combined injuries from the blunt force trauma.

Green is survived by his wife Dawn, and two children, son Tyler and step-son Derrick.

Becky Soubeyrand, a cousin of Green, offered the following:

He was doing something he loved. I am sure he would rather die no other way. He was following in his father’s footsteps. He had been doing this kind of thing for over 25 years.

The video below is graphic.