Skydiver, 22, Breaks Down During Descent After She Decides to Attempt Jump Out of Hot Air Balloon (Exclusive)
Skydiver, 22, Breaks Down During Descent After She Decides to Attempt Jump Out of Hot Air Balloon (Exclusive)
Jordan GreeneThu, March 26, 2026 at 7:37 PM UTC
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Miah Nielson hot air balloon jumpingCredit: Miah Nielson -
Miah Nielson, 22, wakes up before sunrise to skydive from hot air balloons with her boyfriend
The Los Angeles–based content creator says the rare type of jump requires advanced training
Despite scary moments and unpredictable landings, she hopes sharing the experience inspires others to try something new and “go live life”
When Miah Nielson jumps out of a hot air balloon at sunrise, she knows exactly what she’s doing — even if it sounds completely unreal to everyone watching online.
The 22-year-old Los Angeles–based content creator recently drew attention after sharing videos of herself skydiving from hot air balloons, a rare type of jump that even many experienced skydivers never get to try.
“It’s such a funny thing to say and admit, but yes, I jump off of hot air balloons with my friends and boyfriend Noah,” Nielson tells PEOPLE exclusively.
Miah Nielson in front of a hot air balloonCredit: Miah Nielson
The jumps often happen early in the morning in Perris, Calif., before the sun even comes up.
Nielson and her boyfriend will wake up at 3 a.m., drive about two hours and climb into a hot air balloon while it’s still dark, just before sunrise. Once the balloon rises, they carefully climb out onto the side before jumping thousands of feet toward the ground — never fully sure where they’ll land.
“You really can’t control where the balloon goes,” Nielson says, adding that extensive training helps them safely find landing spots under the canopy. “Most times we land in random fields. If you’re lucky, you land right by your car and then just go straight to grabbing breakfast afterwards.”
Nielson first jumped from a hot air balloon when she was 19, after hearing about the experience through the skydiving community.
“In skydiving, it’s a small world," she says. "You always hear people talking about this balloon that you can jump off of, which is a dream for many of us."
Miah Nielson and her boyfriend Noah mid-airCredit: Miah Nielson
At the time, she wasn’t licensed yet, but she still went up in the balloon to watch her boyfriend make the jump — and says the experience only made her more eager to try it herself.
She remembers being in the hot air balloon, not able to jump yet, and feeling jealous the entire time. Soon, that quickly changed.
“As soon as I got my license, him and I did three balloon jumps back to back,” she says.
“The first jump I ever did I cried because of how beautiful and rare this whole experience is,” she adds. “This is a perspective of the world most people will never see. It makes you feel so connected to the world, people, and yourself.”
The experience, Nielson explains, feels completely different from a normal skydive.
“It is dead quiet up in the air, winds are calm — if I whispered, you could hear it,” she says. “When you jump off that balloon, you experience something called ‘dead air.’ It’s this period of time right before the wind catches up with you, when everything is quiet.”
That moment, she says, is what keeps her coming back.
But despite how effortless the videos look, Nielson says the sport requires serious training and safety precautions.
To skydive from a hot air balloon, jumpers must earn advanced certifications and complete additional tests beyond the standard skydiving license. Each rig also includes two parachutes — a main canopy and a backup that deploys automatically if needed.
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“I am scared almost every time I jump,” she admits. “Some of the fear is excitement, the other half is because I am about to jump off a hot air balloon thousands of feet above the ground.”
Still, she says the nerves disappear the second she jumps.
“As soon as my feet leave that platform, all of my nerves calm down, and I feel so beyond present,” she says. “There’s this joy, and wow factor that comes into play. It makes me feel like I’m a little girl getting so excited over just seeing the world with my best friend.”
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Miah Nielson and her boyfriend NoahCredit: Miah Nielson
Back home, her family isn’t surprised she gravitated toward such an extreme hobby. Nielson says she has always been the “crazy wild child” in the family. “They worry, of course, but they also just love me for my wild, crazy self.”
Even her younger sister has started talking about one day joining her in the sky.
“My 5-year-old sister tells my dad that when she gets older one day, she wants to jump off with me,” Nielson says. “That always puts a smile on my face.”
Looking back, Nielson says she started posting on social media as a place to share everyday moments with friends, but over time, it gradually became a way to document her life in the sky.
Since then, she's built a community of over 48,000 followers on TikTok and 82,000 on Instagram, with many of her videos reaching millions of views.
“To think millions of people have seen my videos and I don’t even know a million people — it’s hard to rationalize,” she says. “I feel extremely grateful that people get to see something they might have never known was possible.”
“Most comments are usually something like ‘this is AI’ or ‘there’s no way this is real,’ ” she adds. “My favorite comments are when someone says they want to try skydiving because of my videos.”
However, while Nielson’s videos show the highlight reel, she says not every jump goes as planned.
She recalls landing in strangers’ backyards, dealing with minor parachute twists and even ripping her pants during one rough landing.
“I slid on my rear end, ripped my pants and then face planted in the dust,” she says. “Trust me, I laughed about this, too. I still have so much to learn.”
Despite the close calls, she says the rush of jumping — and sharing it — makes it all worth it.
Looking ahead, Nielson hopes to keep skydiving around the world, with her sights set specifically on the glaciers in Alaska — but more than anything, she wants her videos to remind people that life is meant to be lived.
“I hope people feel absolutely stoked when they watch my videos,” she says. “I hope they know real people can do badass things. I hope they feel inspired to try something new and go live life.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
