Falls plunges have few survivors

NIAGARA FALLS, ONT (WIVB) - Very few have taken a death defying plunge over the Niagara and lived to tell about it.

"He was calm, a lot calmer than I would have been."

Witnesses couldn't believe their eyes; the only other time a person survived a plunge over the Horseshoe Falls without a protective device.

Witness Terry McMullen said, "We were so excited to see him at the bottom. She started crying because she figured the guy was dead." (October, 2003)

Kirk Jones plunged head-first over the Falls in October of 2003, and pulled himself out of the water onto the rocks below.

He told police at the time he was depressed, and was not trying to be a daredevil. But police charged him with criminal mischief.

He had, after all, had a friend videotaping his plunge.

It was something he had talked about with his family for years, and within days he was cleaned up and telling his story on Inside Edition.

Jones said, "It was a glassy, surreal experience, so loud and thunderous, a lot of pressure on my head as I was forced out and I don't know how fast. It seems like a hundred miles an hour." (October, 2003)

There are other Falls survivors, but always with some type of protection.

Seven-year-old Roger Woodward was wearing a life preserver when he plunged over the American Falls after a boating accident in 1960.

And daredevil Dave Munday of Ontario floated to safety after conquering the Horseshoe Falls in 1985 in his specially made diving bell.

But until now, only Kirk Jones has taken the plunge without protection and lived to tell his story.

"And God's gift is why I'm here, I guess."

Kirk Jones was last known to be working as a daredevil at a circus in Texas in 2004.