Escape artist to be pushed from plane _ locked inside a casket
OTTAWA, Ill. - Imagine the terror of being handcuffed, chained and locked inside a wooden casket that is subsequently dragged out of an airplane at 14,500 feet (4,420 metres).
That's the scenario that Anthony Martin faces today when the 47-year-old escape artist takes to the sky in northern Illinois.
Martin, of Sheboygan, Wis., is no stranger to extracting himself from tricky situations.
Since his first escape from handcuffs at the age of 10, he has wriggled his way out of straitjackets, ropes, chains, jail cells, coffins and a cage submerged under water.
Martin says he hopes to be free of the box after about 40 seconds of free fall, at around 7,000 feet (2,130 metres).
He'll then track away from the box and fly his parachute to a farm in Serena, Ill., 110 kilometres southwest of Chicago.
