firmly on terra firma 81 year-old lavern everett's its dallas tell a story short to stop the hearts ofage hasps she says for a decade or single focus was to high above the central valley floor and to jump. she chose the lower deck parachute center their web site promotes the company is one of the largest and oldest skies in the u.s.. 48 years experience the thrill like no other. but on her 80th birthday last may she says she got an experience like no other. one the defied death. >>> at his tel lawn. i just held on you do all you have to do. hi there it was the hardest for the struggle in the harness. normally the novice is attached to the instructors chest but her case that there were detached dangling as he pulled the rip cord. >>> put yourself in my position. learn never sees himself as lucky she is here to celebrate her 81st birthday. >>> faa investigators were here yesterday but it is our no word on how they came out of the harness csi did do background checks and found there were four deaths connected with the parachute center since 2009 with them was just last month i can also te

will not be their first trip towards the stars but their family members who are left behind on terra firma still cannot help but get butterflies every time their loved ones take off for american jew acaba it's blastoff number two but his relatives are no less anxious a colonel reassured by the looks of that rocket behind us in the manner in which they appear to be doing this it's sort of reassuring that there are some pros though in the war that taking care of myself commander is a man with a lot of experience under his belt eight spacewalks and five missions go a long way towards taking an i assess trip in your stride. the rookie to use a round of the fairing but i'm really grateful to everyone who did in excellent job . so what's involved in becoming so calm and collected before space mission training of course but also a whole lot of patience generally cosmonauts have to bide their time for years before getting the chance of a date with the stars. always nine years that i've been waiting it's been training and learning it's all you think about tests and learning like eternal students. p

safely back to terra firma does he go into the sea no onto the beach but at that. spot saw almost getting way on to the landing the good man ok nice to see learned it safely right let's check it out things are moving over the business desk it's just stuff pretty woman it's past two o'clock in the afternoon here in moscow going across rivers the marina what we've got for us this hour a buoyant picture for europe i hear yeah that's right and surprisingly so especially after wednesday's record high unemployment rates in the euro zone of course were expecting investors to continue reacting badly to the. but in fact it's the complete opposite we can see that the dax in fact is adding over one percent this hour and we have drug makers and banks leaving the gains there and also investors are of course awaiting a key interest rate decision to come out from the european central bank meeting later today and also a bit of positive news are for spain the government has managed to successfully sell bonds and worth over two and a half billion euros so it especially would know th

because you're not on terra firma. you're on a concrete deck over the railroad yard. so all of these people are going up escalators to get to the elevator and kind of inefficient but you have to do that because you're on the air rights over a railroad yard. really is a brilliant idea. and, of course by the 1920s, it becomes the center of a skyscraper district. here is 230 park and there is the waldorf, gives you an idea of the extent of the railroad yard, basically from lex to madison from about 46th street or so all the way up to 50th. really is an amazing idea, very american. the way we took neo classicism from the renaissance and adopted it to the 20th century t same is true of the skyscraper. here is the flat iron building in 1903, it was not the first and not the tallest. everybody says that but it's not. but, it was beautiful and everybody loved to photograph it. you're looking of course we see this all the time, steel framed skyscrapers but stop and think what is the technology. basically, back in the 1890s when they were introduced, they were explained as a ra

. >> after a nightmare ride, laverne and her instructor eventually reached the safety of terra firma.shaken but apparently not hurt. >> i fell. i had a rough landing. >> reporter: the company that makes the harness says someone loosened it to make her feel more comfortable. that the instructor should have checked it for a perfect fit. even before she jumps you can see it's slipped off her should wrer it should be. she's just glad she made it out alive. her next adventure, driving a race car. clayton sandell, abc news. >> i'm the first to admit i'm not brave enough to go skydiving. i get the adrenaline rush and all that. god bless her for 80-year-olds. but fatalities are only -- dropped to about 21 every year. >> 21. >> that can't be right. they've dropped to about -- >> yep. of course, i'm going to feel it first. i'm going to take the brunt of that, aren't i. >> you feel a lot of things in those pictures. we should do that. that would be like a team building experience for the overnight staff. you all need to go sky diving. >> like from the desk. three feet. >> i'm not doing that. hav

. >> reporter: after a nightmare ride, laverne and her instructor reach the safety of terra firma.en but not hurt. >> let me get my clothes. >> reporter: having survived a birthday that was nearly her last. for "good morning america," clayton sandel, abc news, los angeles. >> she is never going to try that again. we have this statement from the parachute center involved in the jump. this happened a long time ago. everything worked as advertised, no one got hurt on injured. >> i would be interested to hear her side of the story these days. >> exactly. >>> coming up here on "good morning america," beyonce back on stage for the first time since baby blue ivy made her debut. that story coming up after a quick break. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... [ cheering ] in true l

. >> reporter: after a nightmare ride, they eventually reached the safety of terra firma.'s shaken. but apparently not hurt. >> i fell. i had a rough landing. >> reporter: the company said that makes the harness said that someone loosen it. the instructor should have checked the proper fit. she's just glad that she made it out alive. her next adventure, she said, driving a race car. for "good morning america," clayton sandell, abc news, los angeles. >> if she wants to strive a race car, we should send her to indy 500. >> she's tough. i like. unphased by the whole thing. >> race car driving? >> that i will do. >>> time to check the headlines. ron claiborne is out this morning. we have reena with us. busting out the pippa middleton's dress. >> it looks like pippa's dress for yesterday. you wear it much better. >> thank you. >>> good morning to you guys as well. in the news, a fast-moving wildfire in new mexico has grown to 100,000 acres and the smoke is spreading across the state. poor weather conditions has prevented the crew from getting any containment so far. >>> two fem

and that puts them on terra firma in the world. in a very interesting way. and it involves them in politics in a variety of countries in a very interesting way. and then there is a second factor. their access to oil & gas is much more constrained now than it was just a generation ago. of course in the 1960s and '70s they owned large chunks of a ramco and saudi arabia, they owned part of the iranian oil company and the iraqi oil company. and they never really worried about finding enough oil & gas to pump out and sell. well, resource nationalism, nationalization drives in the middle east in the 1970s, the the idea began there and spread all around the world that countries that are capable of owning their own oil ought to do so and ought not to allow companies likes exxon mob toil have a piece of it so the result of this is that they've been driven into weaker states, into higher risk environments. so about a quarter of their liquides production over the last ten years, oil & gas liquides is from west africa. they're in places that they wouldn't otherwise want

> reporter: after a nightmare ride, laverne and her instructor eventually reached the safety of terra firmaess her for 80 years old, jumping out of a plane. but fatalities are only -- dropped to about 21 every year. >> that can't be right. they've dropped to about -- >> yep. of course, i'm going to feel it first. i'm going to take the brunt of that, aren't i? >> you feel a lot of things in those pictures. we should do that. that would be like a team building experience for the overnight staff. you all need to go sky diving. >> like from the desk. three feet. >> i'm not doing that. have you ever done it? >> would never. my knees -- i have a phobia of heights. >> so you don't -- me either. skydiving is not your thing? >> no. >> glad grandma is okay. >> keep my feet on the ground. >>> coming up, the indy guy and the nashville girl have a reason, a big one, to celebrate. >> and j. timberlake, he's your guy, right? >> he is my justin. great guy. >> he has a reason to change his facebook status. it's all next in "the skinny." >> announcer: abc's "world news now" will continue after thi ♪ skinny ♪