Felix Baumgartner offers UN chief skydiving lesson

Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner offered to give skydiving lessons to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon while both posed at United Nations Headquarters on Tuesday. Photo: AP AP, United Nations

Supersonic skydiver Felix Baumgartner wants to teach UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon how to skydive.

Baumgartner made the offer Tuesday during a photo opportunity where the UN chief spoke admiringly of Baumgartner's death-defying leap last week from a balloon 24 miles (39 kilometers) above the Earth, breaking the sound barrier and setting a world record.

When Ban said that he had never skydived, the Austrian offered up his services.

"Here's your chance, I'll teach you to skydive," Baumgartner said.

While Ban looked less-than-enthusiastic about the skydiving lesson, he did call Baumgartner "the most courageous person in the world."

Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, told reporters that while the secretary-general usually deals with weighty issues involving conflicts and wars, he also thinks it is important to engage other parts of society.