Man survives 50-metre plunge over Niagara Falls

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. - A man survived a 50-metre plunged over Niagara Falls on Monday, becoming only the third person known to have gone over without a safety device and lived.

Police and fire crews arrived at the scene around 10:20 a.m. after witnesses reported seeing a man climb over the retaining wall and deliberately jump into the river waters.

The man, believed to be in his 40s, went over the Horseshoe Falls and surfaced in the lower Niagara River basin adjacent the Journey Behind the Falls observation platform, Niagara Parks Commission Police said in a release.

"He waded ashore," said Platoon Chief Dan Orescanin of the Niagara Falls Fire Department.

"He must have gotten swept into an eddy, floated over there and was able to get out on his own.

"That's another stroke of luck," Orescanin said. "If he was in the main current, he would have been swept down river."

The man was swimming around when rescue crews located him. The rescuers rappelled down the steep and rocky gorge and pulled him in a basket back up the cliff.

"It was very difficult. Between the shale and the boulders, and everything is wet and slick. It's slimy," Orescanin said.

The man was brought to safety at about 12:16 p.m. as a crowd of Victoria Day tourists watched in shock.  More >>