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90-Year-Old Man Skydives Over Texas

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND (AP) - A 90-year-old man has successfully skydived from 11,000 feet on South Padre Island.

Russell Louden tells the Brownsville Herald that he's wanted to jump out of a plane ever since he tried to become a paratrooper during World War II. On Jan. 19, the Weslaco resident made the jump.

His plane took off from Brownsville/South Padre International Airport and dropped him over the island. He landed in the warm sand.

About 20 of his friends came to cheer him on before his jump.

The company that took him on the jump, Skydive South Padre, says Louden is the oldest person to skydive from one of its planes.

The previous record was set by an 89-year-old woman from El Paso.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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