A Bahrain-based family entered the record books for being the first Indian family to perform a free fall skydive jump.

Vijay Kumar Sharma, his wife and two children did the free fall jump from an aircraft in Houston, Texas, US, last July 23 at the Skydive Spaceland.

They have now been entered into the Limca Book of World Records 2008, an Indian-based record book that represents the achievements of more than a billion Indians.

Sharma, 60, is a retired major from the Indian Army and is now Al Mannai International Trading Company general manager.

His wife Suman, 57, works as a teacher at the Al Noor International School.

Their daughter Sonali Aggarwal, 34, stays with her businessman husband Sunil Aggarwal and their two children in New Delhi, India.

Son Atul Mohan, 25, who studied at the Indian School and Birla Institute of Technology International Centre, Bahrain, currently works as a software engineer in Houston.

"My wife, daughter and I went to Texas last July to visit Atul," said Sharma.

"While there, we decided to do a free fall skydive. We were trained at the Skydive Spaceland, Texas, mainly by a video presentation.

"Atul has done skydiving a couple of times earlier and he encouraged us to do it as a family. We were instantly excited at the idea and couldn't wait to do it."

The family jumped from an aircraft at a height of 15,000ft and fell at a speed of 193km per hour, he said.

"The scariest part was actually getting on the aircraft. However, the whole set up inside the aircraft gets you excited and the instructors offer great encouragement.

"First, Atul jumped because he had done it before, followed by me, then Sonali and Suman. We were all accompanied by an instructor.

"It was the most amazing experience that a person can go through and yet not be able to describe in words. You feel like a stone while falling and nothing else matters.

"It took us just around a minute to reach 5,000ft, falling at a speed of 193km per hour. At this height, the cord is pulled to release the parachute.

Sharma said he did not know that it was a world record before his family performed the stunt.

"We never realised that we were creating a record. I contacted the Limca Book of World Records to know if what we had done was anything special at all," he said.

"They researched the matter and informed us that we will be included in the 2008 edition for being the first Indian family ever to have performed the stunt.

"It seems many Indians have performed the feat earlier, but we were the first to do it together as a family.

"We also received a certificate for our record, though we haven't got hold of the latest edition of the book that was published in India last week."-TradeArabia News Service