Romanian Gabriel-Dan Chiriac has managed to break Timo Toivonen’s European skydiving record on April 2, after jumping from a height of 9,703 meters.

He made the jump from a hot air balloon flown by Romanians Mihai Ilie and Mugurel Conta Ionescu, the Romanian Air Club (Aeroclubul Romaniei) announced on Facebook.

Finland’s Timo Toivonen was holding the record, after making a jump from 9,319 meters in April 2013.

“This result comes after a long period of preparation, during which several stages of calculations, checks, acquisitions and even changing or building the necessary equipment was needed. Moreover, accommodation jumps were also performed, as well as training and equipment checks,” reads the announcement from Aeroclubul Romaniei.

Gabriel-Dan Chiriac is a Romanian skydiver and volunteer instructor at Aeroclubul Romaniei. He’s been practicing skydiving since 1984, holding the national record of 10,431 meters (from April 12, 2015). This result, although higher than the one recorded on April 2, couldn’t be approved as a European record because, just before that, the team Polska Stratosfera notified the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on a record for the altitude of 10,700 meters. Although their request wasn’t validated, by the time the verification was completed, the deadline for submitting other requests was exceeded. Thus, the record established by Finland’s Timo Toivonen was maintained.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Florin Danciu on Facebook)