Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver who jumped from the top of Taipei 101 on Tuesday, has been barred from re-entering the country, National Immigration Agency Deputy Director Steve Wu (吳學燕) said yesterday in a news release.
Baumgartner arrived in Taiwan on Dec. 6, saying the purpose of his trip was "tourism," Wu said.
Wu said Baumgartner's parachute jump on Tuesday violated a clause in the Immigration Law (
"Baumgartner engaged in activities different from those he declared" when entering the country, Wu said.
After consultations with the National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency, "we have decided to bar him from future entry into the country," Wu said.
Meanwhile, Taipei 101 has stepped up security checks.
"We have increased the frequency of patrols of the observation deck and are barring people from taking large bags to the observation deck," said Michael Liu (
Liu said the guards who failed to prevent Baumgartner from climbing over the 3m high railing on the observation deck would be disciplined.
"We will penalize the security personnel according to the measures outlined in our contract with the security firm," Liu told the Taipei Times, adding that the penalty had not yet been decided.
The 38-year-old Austrian daredevil -- who has parachuted off skyscrapers around the world -- said he had wanted to jump off Taipei 101 since it was completed in 2004.
"He prepared himself for one year," his spokeswoman in Vienna said.
With the help of colleagues, he hid his parachute inside the ceiling of a toilet on the 91st floor. He inspected the building's security system and the observation deck for five days, waiting for the right wind conditions.
On Tuesday, the weather conditions were right. Baumgartner had hired breakdancers to perform on the observation deck and two women to chat with the security guards to distract them.
He climbed over the railing on the upper deak, walked out onto a ledge and jumped, landing on the roof of a parking garage. He then ran to a waiting taxi, went to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and was on a flight to Hong Kong two hours later.
Local media said Taipei 101 officials did not know about the jump until two hours after it took place.
Taipei City police said they would file a charge of endangering public safety against Baumgartner. The charge carries a maximum prison term of five years.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats