By Reanna Smith & Tim Hanlon
Horrifying footage shows the tragic final moments of a daredevil who attempted to jet ski off the Niagara Falls.
A tourist captured stuntsman Robert Overacker, 39, going over the iconic waterfalls which border the US and Canada, in 1995. He tried to carry out the feat in front of thousands of watching tourists to raise awareness for homelessness. The California stunt school graduate had been planning the jump for seven years and he aimed to go over the edge before deploying a parachute - but the stunt went badly wrong and he plunged to his death.
At 12.35pm on October 1, 1995, he finally went through with it as sightseers watched him ride over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls on a single jet ski. In a video of the incident, recorded by German tourist Manfred Baldus, Robert could be seen making his way towards the brink of the falls.
As his jet ski disappeared off the edge, Robert let go of it and held his hands high in the air before he too vanished out of sight. Robert, who hadn't packed his rocket-propelled parachute himself, then attempted to deploy it, but he didn't know that the parachute wasn't actually attached to his body. . Robert met his tragic end as he plunged into the rough rapids in front of horrified onlookers, which included his friend and brother.
People who witnessed the incident initially thought Robert may have survived, but it was later speculated that the rapids had made it look like he was swimming when thrashing his corpse around. Clay Schmitt, who posted the eerie footage to YouTube after getting it from his cousin, wrote: "My family was visiting from Germany and just happened to be casually filming when Robert ramped the s*** out of the falls on a jet ski and went out in the best way possible. Fists in the air."
Some viewers revealed they were also there to witness the horrific accident. "I watched this from the balcony of the Fallsview Sheraton. It was the morning after a wedding spent at the hotel...the few of us were shaking off cobwebs from the night before and watched this incredulously as it happened," one commented, reported the Daily Star.
He added: "I turned to my friends after watching this and muttered something about never drinking again because I just watched a guy go over the Falls on a jet ski." Another wrote: "Holy s*** man I was there when that happened... I live in downstate NY was up with my family we were in the gift shop or whatever and all of a sudden there was a noise that sounded like a huge crack of thunder!!!! All that washed up was broken jet ski pieces!!"
Robert's body was recovered from the water by Maid of Mist staff and he was pronounced dead at Niagara General Hospital an hour after the stunt. Parks Police dispatcher Tom Detenbeck said Robert, who left behind a wife, had travelled to Niagara Falls twice before the fatal incident to jet ski over the edge but his friends had persuaded him not to go through with it.
But on this occasion, he was determined to finally do it as he rode a jet ski with a sign reading "Save the homeless". Robert isn't the first daredevil to have attempted going over Niagara Falls and he wasn't the last. Since 1850, more than 5,000 people have reportedly attempted to go over the waterfalls, either intentionally or accidentally. But only 16 people have been recorded to have survived.