By TAHIRA YAQOOB
11th October 2007[/align]
He's had many ups and a few downs in his high-profile career. Unfortunately for Sir Richard Branson, this daredevil exercise yesterday was definitely in the latter category. Not only did he lose his dignity, he also sacrificed a portion of his trousers.
The billionaire entrepreneur and serial self-publicist had decided to descend 407ft from the top of the Palms Casino Hotel, Las Vegas, to promote Virgin America, a new airline offering domestic flights in the U.S. It all started so well. Strapped in a harness and attached to a cable, the 57-year-old tycoon beamed confidently before taking a running jump from the roof. As he descended rapidly, he pulled airline tickets out of his pocket and scattered them to the ground as part of the bungee-cum-abseiling stunt.
But instead of gliding smoothly to the ground, Sir Richard smashed his bottom twice into the building and, as the colour drained from his face, began to realise something was amiss - or rather, missing. After clamping his hands to his seatless trousers to assess the damage, he was lowered to the ground without further injury. Looking white as a sheet, he did not stop to answer questions and was whisked into the building by his entourage.
Yesterday after he had recovered from his shock, he tried to play down the incident and said: "I never thought I would take the saying 'flying by the seat of my pants' quite so literally. I was lucky not to have hit my head. Fortunately Carmen Electra [the model and actress] was on the ground to mop my brow."
A Virgin source said: "It was the inaugural flight of the new airline from San Francisco to Las Vegas and Richard had this idea to abseil down a tall building. At the top he was worried as it was getting quite windy and said he was not sure about doing it - but he let himself be talked into it.
[align=center]
[/align]
