Wallenda family accident: Newly-released video shows performers plummeting to ground

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Monday, March 25, 2019
Wallenda family accident: Newly-released video shows performers falling to ground
The accident in Sarasota, Fla., involved famous daredevil Nik Wallenda and his family, the Flying Wallendas, who are known for performing high-wire acts without safety nets.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Newly-released video shows horror on the high wire as circus performers plummet to the ground during a rehearsal gone wrong.

The accident in Sarasota, Fla., involved famous daredevil Nik Wallenda and his family, the Flying Wallendas, who are known for performing high-wire acts without safety nets. The family has a tragic history with the act, but incredibly, everyone survived this fall.

Video shows five high-wire performers losing their balance during practice and plummeting 25 feet to the ground below.

The group was rehearsing a complex, never-before-performed eight-person pyramid in February 2017 that would have set a world record.

Legendary daredevil Nik Wallenda was one of the performers on that wire, though he didn't fall and wasn't injured. All of the performers survived.

Wallenda, nicknamed "the King of the Wire," is known for pushing limits and is famous for his death-defying high wire stunts. But the daredevil admitted the accident made him think he might never perform again.

"I've shed a lot of tears, if I'm being completely vulnerable. After that accident, I had to experience it over and over again in my head and I think I had a little taste of what PTSD is," Wallenda said in a video posted to Instagram.

Of course, Nik Wallenda did go on to perform after this accident. Luckily, no one died or was paralyzed and they have all fully recovered.