on 1 April 1981, Aussie stuntman Jim Bailey died in Hawaii while performing a fatal stunt
Australian stuntman Jim Bailey, known as ”The Human Torpedo,” fell 500 feet to his death from an airplane while making a film for television.
He was suspended underneath a single-engine Ballanca by a strap and belt when the belt broke. He hung onto the strap for a few seconds before falling.
The stunt was called to hang on under the plane during takeoff and slide to a landing when the plane made a ”touch-and-go” on the strip.
Bailey had appeared twice on ‘That’s Incredible.’ In an episode televised on Jan. 26, he was dragged behind a car and crashed head-first through a flaming wall.
On Dec. 8, 1980, an episode showed Bailey being dragged behind another car at 165 mph and then skidding 1,300 feet along the pavement.
But Alan Landsburg, producer of the ABC show, said there was no connection between Bailey’s death and ‘That’s Incredible.’
‘We have nothing going in Hawaii, we’re not working there,’ Landsburg said from his Los Angeles office. ‘We’ve been on hiatus for about three and one-half weeks. We finished our season and we don’t start shooting until June.
‘The accident shocks us, but there’s no way it could have been our crew filming. I tell you it was not our shoot. The accident was not even remotely connected with ‘That’s Incredible.’
