A STUDENT who cheated death by landing in a tree after both his parachutes failed on his first skydive has set his sights on greater heights – emulating world record breaker Felix Baumgartner.

Liam Byrne, 18, jumped from 3,200ft above Peterlee Parachute Centre, in east Durham, on Saturday evening.

But the Northumbria University student’s first parachute became twisted and his reserve became tangled in the first, leaving him spiralling towards the ground.

He plunged into a tree, narrowly missing a church and a 5ft spiked metal fence, and was left suspended 30ft up until firefighters freed him.

Mr Byrne, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, suffered only a bruised side and scraped hand.

The incident came just hours before Austrian Felix Baumgartner jumped from 24 miles up on the edge of space, setting new world records for the highest and fastest skydive and becoming the first skydiver to break the speed of sound.

Today, Mr Byrne, a firstyear English Literature student, said: “It’s pretty cool how this happened to me the same weekend that Felix broke the record. I didn’t realise it at the time, but when I watched his jump, I thought it was quite funny – the day after I nearly died from parachuting from a much lower height.

“I guess his jump will stick with me in particular because it was just the day after mine.

“I’d love to think I’d be able to do something like that one day, but first I’m going to stick with just getting back up there and actually landing successfully from a jump.”

Mr Byrne said he didn’t normally like heights, but would jump again.

“I don’t normally like heights. I was nervous, but it wasn’t like my stomach was churning. I didn’t have time to be terrified – it only took me a minute to come down.

“I do realise how lucky I am – I’m probably going to go and get a lottery ticket. “I’m thinking about jumping again next week – the best way to get over it is to go again. Nothing worse can happen than that.”