MALAYSIA - As those on the ground watched with a lump in their throat, the parachutist hit against the building again and again.

He struggled to pull at the cords of his parachute and it was five long seconds before he was able to regain control of his parachute to "fly" safely away from the building.

Franky Kowaas from Indonesia landed safely some 40 seconds later -- much to the relief of ambulance personnel who had scrambled to prepare for the worst.

Franky, 47, was one of 15 BASE jumpers who took part in the last leg of the KL Tower International Jump Malaysia 2008 yesterday.

BASE (building, antenna, span and earth) jumping is an extreme sport where parachutists jump off such high spots.

A smiling Franky said he pulled the wrong cords after jumping off the building. "I didn't panic. I kept my composure and worked out what I did wrong."

Franky's brush with disaster was not the only excitement for the clutch of people watching the jump from below.

Gary Cunningham, who entered the Guinness World Book of Records in 2005 with 133 jumps in 24 hours, "disappeared" in a cloud of white for a few moments before re-emerging and then scoring a perfect landing.

The Australian later revealed the "white cloud" to be flour, part of a special effect he had planned for the jump.

Two members of the Red Bull Airforce, Miles Daisher and Kiwi Chuck Berry performed a tandem jump.

Daisher, a professional BASE jumper from Idaho in the United States, didn't just stop at one jump yesterday but went back to do three more.

"The first few seconds after you jump feel like a vacuum, like you're completely weightless. After about five seconds, you would feel the force of the wind building and have to open your parachute.

"Aspiring jumpers have to practise sky-diving first. Master the controlling of parachutes as they are everything for a BASE jumper," he said.

Malaysia is the only country in the world that has legalised BASE jumping, making it especially dear to all its jumpers.