Base jumper crashes on S. Africa's Table Mountain

CAPE TOWN (AFP) - A well-known American base jumper was in intensive care in a South African hospital after leaping off Cape Town's Table Mountain and crashing into the slope, the Cape Times reported Tuesday.

Jeb Corliss, 35, tried to glide off the peak in a wingsuit but clipped a rock 60 metres (197 feet) from the base of the mountain and tumbled onto a hiking path, where he was airlifted to hospital with leg injuries.

"It could have been a strange gust of wind, it could have been that he got too close to the mountain," said fellow adventurer Joby Ogwyn.

Base jumping is a freefall drop off fixed objects until a parachute is opened.

Corliss has leapt off sites worldwide, from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and once glided through a hole in a mountain in China's Hunan province. He is banned from New York's Empire State Building.

The illegal stunt left Table Mountain National Park authorities unimpressed.

"The danger associated with base jumping does not allow us to issue permits. He did not have permission. We will definitely fine him and possibly press charges," spokeswoman Merle Collins told the newspaper.

The mountain is 1,086 metres (3,563 feet) at its highest point.

A video clip of the jump is on (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqiV_O8cdWY).