A north-east teen may have soared his way into the record books after taking to the skies in a daredevil stunt.
Liam Byrne, from Stonehaven, completed his first wingsuit flight on Thursday in Portugal after completing 200 practice sky dives.
Wingsuit flying allows people to travel greater distances and at greater heights than traditional skydiving through the use of a special outfit that expands in the air.
The 17-year-old’s dad Michael, a former Royal Marine, now believes his son may be the youngest person to have taken part in the sport – four years after he became the most junior climber to scale the Europe’s highest summit, Mount Elbrus, in Russia.
Mr Byrne senior was also training to take part in the jump but contracted an infection while retrieving his parachute from a river on a practice run.
He said: “We’re waiting for the Guinness Book of Records to get back to us but the instructor said there was a good chance Liam is the youngest – he was really surprised that he was only 17 because he looks older. The minimum age is 16.
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“When we were doing the first practice dives they had to start sending us up separately because I was more worried about him than myself.
“The instructors were concerned that I wasn’t focused enough on myself. Once we went up on different jumps it worked perfectly.”
The former Mackie Academy pupil set his sights on the skies after his mountain climbing exploits, but had to wait until he was 16 before he could start diving.
In order to take up wingsuiting, participants have to complete 200 traditional jumps in 18 months.
With the aid of the suit, flyers can be up in the air for an average of about four minutes, compared to just 70 seconds in the traditional dive.
Mr Byrne added: “When we landed after our first few jumps together I was just in awe of him.
“He’s just so switched-on and sensible. His instructor says the same.
“And it’s not something he boasts about. He put a video up online and his friend didn’t even know he’d been doing the jumps.”
The father and son have completed a number of daring adventures together over the years.
Last year the pair braved temperatures as low as -37C as they undertook a 124-mile trek across Norway’s Finnmarksvidda plateau.
They have also conquered Kilimanjaro and travelled across Norway and Sweden on a husky-driven sleigh.
