Two mystery men, clad in all black and wearing dark helmets, parachuted into lower Manhattan before dawn Monday, landing right in front of one of the world’s largest investment banks before vanishing, police said.
Cops on Monday night were still searching for the jumpers, who were captured on surveillance video after they dropped from the sky in front of the Goldman Sachs building near the World Financial Center.
“At 3:07 this morning, two individuals apparently parachuted to the front of the Goldman Sachs building,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday.
“We’re not 100 percent sure of the location, if they came out of an aircraft, but they were seen walking away with the parachutes.”
“What they came out of, we don’t know,” Kelly said. “They were wearing black suits of some sort and black helmets and they are believed to be men.”
He said the pair could be seen walking between Goldman’s West Street building and the nearby Conrad New York Hotel.
A police source said the men likely were BASE-jumping daredevils who leaped off the roof of the 43-story, 740-foot tall building that is the headquarters of the financial behemoth.
The building is just down the block from what is supposed to be one of the most tightly secured parts of the city, the World Trade Center, and is also near an NYPD mobile command center at Vescey and West streets.
Another source suggested the duo could have rapelled from one of the helicopters that frequently fly between the investment firm’s Manhattan and New Jersey offices.
An FAA source said the agency is looking into the incident to determine whether an investigation is warranted.
The FAA will contact the NYPD, the source said.
Police sources said there was no 911 call about the parachuters, and that there were no complaints about noise.
There also were no witnesses, one source said.
Goldman Sachs building security notified the NYPD after seeing the landing on surveillance footage, Kelly said.
“Apparently, some camera catches the landing,” he said.
“There are no banners, no notes were left. Obviously, it’s something that is under investigation.”
Kelly said there didn’t appear to be any vehicle waiting to pick the men up.
They just sauntered off into the night.
These aren’t the first two daredevils to try to parachute in Manhattan.
In 2006, cops arrested BASE jumper Jeb Corliss as he tried to scale the protective fence of the Empire State Building observation deck.
He was charged with reckless endangerment.
But a judge later threw out the indictment, saying Corliss was a professional BASE jumper with enough experience that he hadn’t endangered his or anyone else’s lives.
He was sued the next year by the building’s owners for $12 million.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona