Holy smoke for Archbishop's skydive

Dr John Sentamu's tandem jump from 12,500ft with a member of the Red Devils parachute display team over Langar Airfield in Nottinghamshire was called off last month due to bad weather.

But the rain and wind held off, allowing the 58-year-old Archbishop's jump to go ahead.

During his 45-second free-fall, two members of the Red Devils parachute display team, with orange smoke streaming from canisters strapped to their legs, joined him mid-air in a mini-display routine. At 5,000ft, his parachute opened and five minutes later he landed safely back at the airfield.

Moments after landing in a sitting-down position, the Archbishop held his hands in the air to signal he was OK. He then took his helmet off and was given a hand up by a member of the Red Devils to have his photograph taken and a final take for the mid-air video that was filmed as he parachuted out of the plane.

The Archbishop agreed to do the jump after meeting 38-year-old businessman Guy Brudenell at a charity dinner.

Mr Brudenell, from Helmsley, Yorkshire, told Dr Sentamu about the sky dive he had planned to do alone for the Afghanistan Trust and was stunned when the archbishop agreed to join him.

The pair hope to raise £50,000 for the charity, which supports the families of paratroopers from 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, who have been wounded or killed while serving in Afghanistan.

Dr Sentamu said: "It was fantastic. We were at 13,000ft and then we free-falled for 35 seconds. It happened very quickly and then the man I was with started spinning around. It was absolutely exhilarating. When I was standing at the door (to the plane) I said 'This is it, it's the point of no return, it's the point of no return'."

He added: "I was praying like anybody's business up there. It was an amazing, amazing experience."