A 39 second slow motion video of an Alabama man jumping from a flaming SUV into a lake has been viewed more than 780,000 since it was posted on Youtube on Tuesday. 
 
 The video is titled "most epic vehicle jump ever" but some social media commenters gave the driver, Jed Huie, flack for holding his nose as he jumped into the water. 
 
 "Safety first," he replied. 
 
 "So my buddies and I thought this would be a smart thing to do over Labor Day weekend," one participant in the stunt on Reddit. 
 
 The stunt was performed at a friends farm, a Reddit post stated, and the truck was pulled out of the water with a tractor. 
 
 Updated at 9:23 a.m. to correct the name of the driver. ||||| Have you seen this? A vehicle jump stunt in Alabama is going viral on YouTube. Video editor and director Jakob Hernig tells News 10 it took a team of friends to pull off the stunt where a Suburban on fire hits a jump and splashes into a pond while the driver jumps from the burning vehicle. 
 
 Hernig said a pair of brothers fixed the Suburban and set up the jump, while Hernig went over safety and explained how he wanted the footage to look. He says the team had a plan for how to help if something went wrong and for removing the Suburban from the water quickly. 
 
 Hernig says the stunt took all afternoon to pull off, but only lasted for three seconds. 
 
 Jed Huie was the driver you see leaping from the blaze. He and his brother Johnny also helped fix up the Suburuban. Huie is enduring some ribbing in the comments section on the YouTube video. People are teasing him for holding his nose before splashing into the pond. 
 
 Hernig says the team is just a group of friends that like to work hard and play hard, and the video was just for a good time and great footage. ||||| A perennial crowd-pleasing stunt at the Chicago Air & Water Show went wrong Saturday as two parachutists collided in the sky, leaving one in critical condition after he struck a Gold Coast high-rise and plummeted to the ground. 
 
 The accident, which left the other parachutist injured on North Avenue Beach, cast a pall on the weekendlong show that annually draws tens of thousands to the lakefront for aerial thrills and late summer sunshine. Many were unaware of the accident and complained only of the muggy weather, though die-hard fans of the parachute teams took to social media to offer their worried hopes for positive news. 
 
 The parachutist who struck the apartment building, a member of the Army Golden Knights in his late 20s, sustained multiple injuries and remained in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after undergoing surgery to relieve pressure in his brain caused by a head injury, said Donna Dixon, a Golden Knights spokeswoman. 
 
 “He’s a phenomenal young man. We just ask for everyone’s thoughts and prayers for him and his family,” said Dixon, who declined to name the parachutist because his family was still being notified. “We want a quick recovery.” 
 
 At about 10:30 a.m., 13 parachutists jumped from the aircraft and formed a circle holding hands, a maneuver known as a “mass,” Dixon said. The parachutists included one videographer, and members of the Golden Knights and the Navy Leap Frogs. 
 
 They held together for about 15 seconds before breaking apart in different directions, a move that looks like a “bomb burst” from the ground, with red smoke spraying from the parachutists, Dixon said. 
 
 At that point, it appears that a Golden Knight and a Leap Frog collided, she said. The investigation into why that happened is ongoing. The Leap Frog parachutist landed on North Avenue Beach and suffered a broken leg, while the Golden Knight drifted into a high-rise at North Lake Shore Drive and East Schiller Street. 
 
 Army Golden Knights parachutist Sgt. 1st Class Corey Hood, 32, of Cincinnati, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital a day after he was critically injured when he struck an apartment building and fell to the ground following a midair collision with a member of the Navy Leap Frogs jump team above the Lake Michigan shore Aug. 15, 2015. 
 
 Gold Coast resident Clayton Myers, who was walking his dog with his girlfriend, said he saw the parachutist fall from the sky and crash onto the sidewalk. 
 
 “At first I thought it was bizarre. I thought, ‘Who’s falling from the sky?’ ” said Myers, who lives in the building across the street from where the parachutist landed. “You could hear how hard he hit the ground. It was a terrible sound.” 
 
 Myers said the parachutist looked limp and unconscious as he fell feet-first through the air. Myers said he watched him fall about 20 feet, then approached and found the parachutist’s face covered in blood. 
 
 “It was unnerving,” he said. “His mouth was moving so he was awake and everything, but his eyes were closed and he didn’t seem to be there.” 
 
 Others saw the parachutist fall from the rooftop of a nearby building. 
 
 “His legs caught the tip of the roof, and then he fell over,” said Heather Mendenhall, who was watching with about 20 other people from the rooftop of an adjacent building at 1400 N. Lake Shore Drive. “It was horrible.” 
 
 Steven Gustafson, the left wing of the AeroShell Aerobatic Team, has been flying in shows since he was 19. (Michael Noble Jr., Chicago Tribune) Steven Gustafson, the left wing of the AeroShell Aerobatic Team, has been flying in shows since he was 19. (Michael Noble Jr., Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 A nurse nearby attempted to stabilize the parachutist by holding his bleeding head steady while bystanders waited for paramedics, Myers said. 
 
 Police blocked off the driveway of the building with yellow tape, forming a barrier between the building’s entrance and the dozens of questioning passers-by. Families dragging lawn chairs and coolers would stop by the scene for about a minute, ask neighbors what happened and then, with curious expressions on their faces, continue their trek to North Avenue Beach. 
 
 The rest of the show went on, but the two teams canceled their afternoon performances. Though both normally perform separately, Dixon said, they’ve also jumped together numerous times without incident in recent years. 
 
 The two teams tend to be fan favorites for those who frequent the Air & Water Show, as they jump from aircraft more than 12,500 feet aboveground, hurtling at speeds over 120 mph toward a landing area on North Avenue Beach. Chicago celebrities like Bill Murray and Vince Vaughn have joined them in years past. 
 
 The jumps aren’t without risk or occasional incident. Last month, a member of the Golden Knights team was taken to the hospital after a landing mishap in Wisconsin. In 2013, two Golden Knights were honored after risking their lives to save one another after their parachutes became entangled during a jump in Florida. 
 
 Before joining the team, parachutists go through an eight-week selection process, followed by a three-month training camp. Each team member performs thousands of jumps a year, Dixon said, and only the best perform at the Chicago Air & Water Show. 
 
 “One of our guys has jumped 17 years and nothing’s happened,” she said. “And then all the sudden, some oddity like this occurs.” 
 
 A spokesman for the Navy Leap Frogs couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday. 
 
 For many at the show, the high temperatures proved the greatest challenge. As early as 10 a.m., kids had to tiptoe over the hot sand as they raced to the lake for relief. 
 
 The weather’s a sharp contrast to last year, which was marked by poor visibility, heavy fogs and low temperatures, and led to the delay and eventual cancellation of performances on the show’s second day. 
 
 Michele Petersen, who traveled from Northwest Indiana with her family to attend the show, coped with the heat by setting up lawn chairs closer to the lake and bringing plenty of snacks, such as grapes, strawberries and sandwich fixings. 
 
 She described herself as “passionate about planes” and said she has attended every show for the past 20 years. While she often watches the practice day and both performance days, she said, this year’s heat might be a deal-breaker. 
 
 “We came yesterday and today, and we’d usually stay until tomorrow,” she said. “But we’re thinking maybe not.” 
 
 The event wraps up with performances from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. 
 
 gtrotter@tribpub.com 
 
 meltagouri@tribpub.com
– A group of friends in Alabama filmed what they claim is the "most epic vehicle jump ever" over Labor Day weekend, and they may not be overstating that. AL.com reports a 39-second slow-motion video posted to YouTube on Tuesday shows a man jumping out of an airborne and flaming SUV just before it plunges into a lake. As of this afternoon, it was closing in on a million views. Jakob Hernig, who filmed and edited the video, tells WILX-TV the stunt took an entire afternoon to plan but the action only lasted three seconds. He says they had a safety plan in case something went wrong, and the SUV was pulled from the water afterward with a tractor. On Reddit, one of the stunt's participants explains their motivation thusly: "My buddies and I thought this would be a smart thing to do."