Bush senior marks 90th birthday with a skydive

Former US President George H.W. Bush marks his 90th birthday with a tandem skydive with the All Veteran Parachute Team in Kennebunkport, Maine, June 12, 2014. Bush, the father of 43rd US President George W. Bush, has been celebrating birthdays with occasional skydives for years and marked his 75th and 80th birthdays with jumps. [Photo/IC]

BOWDOINHAM, Maine - Former US President George H.W. Bush marked his 90th birthday by skydiving out of a helicopter above Kennebunkport, Maine, on Thursday, soaring under a red, white and blue parachute with a group of US Army veterans.

"It's a wonderful day in Maine - in fact, nice enough for a parachute jump," said the 41st US president, who first jumped from an aircraft almost 70 years ago when he was shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War Two.

Live video showed Bush soaring over a wooded area of coastal Maine, where he has long maintained a home. After landing, a support team returned him to the wheelchair Bush uses to get around.

Bush, the father of 43rd US President George W. Bush, has been celebrating birthdays with occasional skydives for years and marked his 75th and 80th birthdays with jumps.

In 2009, when he jumped to mark his 85th birthday, his son then-President Bush said: "I think he's a nut to jump."

Skies in Maine were heavily overcast with little wind on Thursday.

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