A Belgian man has been rushed to hospital after he was hit with 1,500 litres of water in what will probably be remembered as the world’s most adventurous ice bucket challenge. The man persuaded a friend to use a fire-fighting airplane to drench him, according to the Local.
The 51-year-old had failed to consider the weight of the water hitting him, and was seriously injured as a result. The misadventure took place at the Empuriabrava aerodrome in northern Catalonia, Spain.
Rolf Kuratle, head of Skydive Empuriabrava: “They had arranged to do it as part of the Ice Bucket Challenge craze in order to raise money for ALS… The pilot flew a fire-fighting plane, the kind used to put out forest fires, and dumped the load onto his friend. They obviously miscalculated how much water it was.”
The weight 1,500 litres of water is 1,500 kilograms, a hefty punch even if it was only a small percentage of the total volume of water that hit him. He is now recovering at Girona hospital but is reported to have avoided any internal injuries.
Although this attempt at the ice bucket challenge was particularly ill advised it is not the only example of the stunt going badly wrong. The internet is littered with videos of people being accidentally hit with buckets, bins and plant-pots by overzealous friends.
The challenge is also popular with members of parliament many of whom – having failed to think through their surroundings – have been filmed on very long holidays at their luxury villas. Ice bucket challenge became popular as a way to raise money for various charities especially those helping cure Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Most people taking the challenge failed to ask their friends to donate any money and as a result the meme has not brought in as many donations as conventional campaign of a similar size would have done. However, the sums involved are still very large with around $80m estimated to have been donated so far.
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