A 26-year old man from China plunged to his death from a 62-story skyscraper after a “rooftopping” stunt went terribly wrong. Wu Yongning had considered himself as China’s first rooftopper and often filmed himself climbing several structures for his online fans.
While on the live-streaming video site Volcano, Wu posted 300 videos and had more than a million followers. He live-streamed over 215 videos while performing stunts at treacherous heights and he received approximately 55,000 yuan, or $8300.
Wu used to be a low-paid background actor in Chinese movies before he decided to give video blogging a try earlier this year. In just ten months, he created a loyal following online, and he realized that he would be able to make much more money than he did as an actor.
Wu’s fans loved his rooftopping videos, so he decided to travel around the country to climb China’s tallest structures and to perform stunts to improve his and his family's lives.
Some of Wu’s most popular stunts involved performing a one-armed handstand from seventy stories above the ground on top of the Sun Moon Light Plaza in Chongquing. Also, he walked along a tiny ledge on top of the 68-story Yuexiu Fortune Center in Wuhan.
In July, Wu did pull-ups without a harness by grabbing the edge of a 3,280-foot high walkway in Zhangjiajie. It became one of this most popular stunts, and he was trying to perform a similar feat on November 8, when he died.
That day, Wu was at the top of the 62-story Huayuan International Centre in Changsha. The general public has access only at the first 44 floors, so it's believed Wu free climbed almost 20 more floors to reach the top.
He had placed his camera on another part of the rooftop to film himself while he was performing pull-ups from the ledge when the incredible tragedy happened. Wu lost his grip and plunged to his death. His body was found by a window cleaner on a terrace below.
Though Wu sadly passed away the same day, it was not until last week that his family confirmed his death. His online followers had been concerned as Wu hadn’t posted any new videos in more than a month.
His girlfriend has spoken out, claiming the pair were about to be engaged just two days after Wu’s death. She claims he was about to ask her father for permission to marry her and was planning to give him a family bridal gift of 80,000 yuan.
That's the equivalent of approximately $12,000 and would have been around what Wu could have earned from his final stunt.
Authorities who investigated the incident claim no foul play was included and have ruled Wu’s death as an accident.
You can watch Wu’s final video below, but remember it might be difficult for some people to view:
I simply hope the fool didn't hurt any innocent people once he did his famous impression of a dead cat bounce...
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