WATCH: Cliff Jump Horror for Norwegian Daredevil

A veteran BASE jumper from Norway narrowly escaped death while trying to perform an acrobatic BASE jump from atop a 4,000-foot cliff.

Richard Henriksen, a surgeon and a father of five, was thrown off the cliff as he attempted to add an acrobatic twist to his jump using a high bar. Just as he swung from the high bar to prepare for his jump, the metal bar broke, sending Henriksen into a free fall.

The stunt was captured on camera by the Norwegian television network NRK, reportedly on hand to film footage of the sport which involves using a parachute to jump from either a building, antenna, span or earth, the four fixed objects that make up the acronym BASE, according to basejumper.com.

Henriksen opened his parachute just in time to survive the fall, but eyewitnesses doubted he would make it. NRK host Are Sende Osen told media outlets the crowd let out a collective gasp at the fall, according to UK news site Orange.co.uk.

Henriksen reportedly said after the fall, once he was home with his children, he too realized how close to death he had come.

"I sat with the two youngest children, reading and singing to them. Then it dawned on me that my children could have been without a dad," Henriksen said, according to the website.