Legal Issues

In the United States, skydiving from an airplane involves regulations set by the FAA, notably the requirement of an airplane jumper to carry two parachutes. Since BASE jumping does not involve an airplane, the FAA has no jurisdiction.

The legal issues that a BASE jumper must consider concern permissions to use the object that is being jumped, and the area used for landing. The general reluctance of the owners of jumpable objects to allow their object to be used as a platform leads many BASE jumpers to attempt to jump from them covertly. Notable exceptions are a bridge in Idaho, and, once a year, on the third Saturday in October ('Bridge Day') when jumping is legal from the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The bridge deck is 876 feet (267 m) above the river. A rock dropped from the deck will hit the water in 8.8 seconds. This annual event attracts about 450 BASE jumpers, and nearly 200,000 spectators. If the conditions are good, in the 6 hours that it is legal, there may be over 800 jumps at Bridge Day. For many skydivers who would like to try BASE jumping, this will be the only fixed object from which they ever jump.

Covert BASE jumps are often made from tall buildings and antenna towers. BASE jumping itself is not illegal, but jumpers who are caught in the act may face charges of trespass or reckless endangerment. However the National Park Service has the authority to ban specific activities in US National Parks, and has done so for BASE jumping as a result of jumping activity in Yosemite. In the early days of BASE jumping, the Service ran a permit scheme under which jumpers could get authorisation to jump El Capitan. This scheme ran for 3 months in 1980 and then collapsed amid allegations of abuse by unauthorised jumpers. Since then, the Service has vigorously enforced a ban, charging jumpers with "aerial delivery into a National Park". One jumper was drowned in the Merced river while being chased by Park Rangers intent on arresting him. Despite this, illegal jumps continue in Yosemite at a rate estimated at a few hundred per year, often at night or dawn. El Capitan, Half Dome and Glacier Point are all used as jump sites.

The legal position is better at other sites and in other countries. For example, in Norway's Lysefjord, BASE jumpers are made welcome. Many sites in the European Alps, near Chamonix and on the Eiger, are also open to jumpers.