'Flat Earther' Bites the Dust

Self-styled daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes has died after crashing his homemade rocket-balloon into the California desert while supposedly trying to prove that the Earth is flat.

Hughes died chasing "proof" of a viral conspiracy theory he championed for years. The 64-year-old was the lone occupant of a steam-powered rocket that blasted off from the desert near Barstow, Calif., on Saturday afternoon, in a failed effort to fly high enough to photograph the "flat" planet.

Video recorded by freelance journalist Jason Chapman shows the rocket taking off with a hiss of steam, shedding a green parachute on its way up before disappearing into the clear blue sky. A few seconds later the arrow-shaped rocket can be seen nose-diving back to Earth. It ultimately slams into the desert ground head-on, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process.

"A man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert during a rocket launch event," San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6587654/flat-earth-mike-hughes-rocket-death/